(Finished) The Fight Continues
by Chaoslord678
Summary: (Set after Episode 95, and the highly acclaimed fan episodes 96-99) The Multi-Agent didn't work on XANA and now he is growing stronger by the minute. To top that, a new, almost inhuman person shows up on the scene. Will the Lyoko Warriors emerge victorious once more? (T to be Safe. OC is a self-insert/fan character, with many more new characters included)
1. Learning to Trust (CHAP1)

Rewrite of my original story. Reviews would appreciated. (And yes, this is still set after the fan made set of episodes 95-99, not including 100, 101, and 102)

Chapter 1; Learning to Trust.

As the sun began rising above the highly acclaimed Kadic Academy, a boy unlike any other could be seen at the entrance gates. He clocked in at average height, and at 14 years of age. He wore simple blue jeans and a light blue T-Shirt, along with red sneakers. But the odd part to him was the blue quills he had coming out of his head and down his back, starting large and growing small.

"Time to see if it all worked…" he muttered to himself quietly in the morning breeze as the automated gates opened up, allowing him to enter the school grounds.

The boy had traveled to many places, but in his eyes, the school still looked nice, aged paint on old walls, nice trees and flowers growing in the courtyard, and the smell of eggs and bacon wafting out of open windows from what he assumed was the cafeteria.

"Here it is" he said to himself, reaching a double door entrance noted on his small map. He opened it and walked into the Secretary's office.

"Who are you?" she asked him, not looking away from the computer she was working at.

"I'm a new student here" the boy said to her. "I was told I would need to meet with the prin-"

"Ahh, there you are" a voice the boy had never heard said. He turned to see the principal. "It's nice to meet you at long last" he said with a smile, extending his arm out to the boy, who shook it.

"Thanks" he replied. "Sorry that my parents couldn't make it" he added, looking down slightly.

"No no, it's all okay" he reassured the boy. "Now then, allow me to show you around and to the room you'll be staying in" he said, leading the boy back out of the building and into the cool autumn morning. "Now then" the principal spoke again as he lead the boy into another large building. "Light's out is at 9:30 P.M and you should be up and ready by 8:00 A.M" he said to him.

"Understood" the boy replied as they came up to a long hallway filled with dorms.

"You'll be staying with Jeremy Belpois" the older man said, walking to said dorm. "He's one of the smartest children here and I believe you can learn a lot from him" he added, knocking on the door.

"Come in!" a half-awake voice called out from inside the room. The man opened the door and began speaking.

"Ahh, good morning Jeremy" he said to him in a normal tone.

"Good morning Mr. Delmas" he said, packing his small bag for the day.

"It is a good morning indeed" he replied. "I would like you to meet your new roommate" he added. This seemed to slightly startle the bespectacled boy. "Jermie" Mr. Delmas began, clearing his throat before continuing on, "I'd like you to meet Keifer" he said as the boy stepped around from behind Delmas, his appearance startling Jeremy"

"Nice to meet you" Keifer said, holding his hand out to Jermie, who in turn, reluctantly shook it.

"It's nice to meet you" he replied. "I'm Jeremy Belpois" he added. "So you new to France?" he asked him as Delmas had went off to find Jim to get Keifer a bed for the room.

"Not really" he replied, leaning against the wall. "I've been here for a while" he said to Jeremy. "So, you into computers?" he asked, motioning to the tech setup the blonde boy had.

"Being into them would be an understatement" he joked. "But yeah, I'm good with them" he said as Jim walked into the room, carrying a box spring in tow and placing it adjacent to Jeremy's own bed on the other side of the door, now making the room look like many other two people rooms.

"I'll bring in everything else later" he said to Keifer. He then looked to Jermie and begun speaking once more. "He has the same schedule as you, so maybe you can show him the ropes of the school" he said to him before leaving. Jermie nodded as Jim left the room.

"I guess I'm into computers too" Keifer said to Jermie as they left the room to head down to breakfast. "But I don't use tech too much" he added as they exited the dorm wing and back out into the morning sun.

"So what do you use them for when you do?" Jermie asked curiously as they walked past onlookers shocked by Keifer's looks.

"Umm… you wouldn't believe me if I told you" Keifer said to him, sounding a little nervous. "But usually I only use mine to listen to tunes" he said quickly in order to try and change the subject.

"Okay then" Jermie said, somewhat just dropping the conversation as they entered the Cafeteria. Jermie showed him what to do as they moved through the line and Keifer thanked him.

"So I guess you've got your own group to go hang out with?" he asks the blonde.

"Yep" he said, motioning to a small group of people at a table towards the middle of the large cafeteria.

"That's cool" Keifer said before walking off to a table in the back. He himself didn't want to intrude upon Jeremy's usual morning. Which is why he chose to do what he did.

"Morning Jeremy" Ulrich said to his long-time friend as he walked over to the table and sat down. "What took you so long?" he asked him quizzically before sipping his orange juice.

"Yeah, you're usually bright and early" Odd pointed out before devouring his fourth muffin.

"I got a new roommate" he deadpanned to the group, which went silent instantly.

"That's not bad, right?" Aelita asked him worriedly.

"Not like he'll bother us" Yumi said, looking over to Keifer for the first time, almost spitting out her water upon seeing him. "What the…" she didn't finish her sentence as she was stunned by his appearance, just as many others had been upon first sight.

"Hey, where's William?" Odd asked to quickly change the subject.

"He got a nasty bug last night, but he said he might be feeling better by tonight" Aelita said.

"Well at least we've got you in case of anything going south" Ulrich said with a slight chuckle before the first bell rung.

"Well, see you after class" Yumi said to them before taking off for her history class.

"And we all, including him have science this morning" Jermie said to them, making note of the fact Keifer had the same schedule as them. Everyone acknowledged the fact and dumped their plates before heading out of the cafeteria.

Mrs. Hertz class dragged on like any other day, except for the fact that no one would stop looking at Keifer's odd features. He had once more decided to sit in the back and despite being stared at constantly, seemed to be really absorbed in that day's lesson. It wasn't until lunch that they saw him reacting to anything really.

He'd chosen the same spot he had used from the morning, but instead of eating, he was working on something on his computer, which seemed to be frustrating him.

"Maybe you could go help him" Ulrich suggested. "As lonely as he is, it kinda hurts to see him get upset"

"I can't blame him" Odd spoke up from his food. "He's been stared at and had things said behind his back by almost everyone"

"Alright, I will" Jeremy said, standing up and walking over to him. "Need some help?" he asked Keifer, taking a seat next to him before he could say no.

"I don't know if you can help me" he said, showing Jeremy what he was working on, which shocked the blonde.

"What the…!" he read over the programming of what

Keifer was trying to achieve and it seemingly rivaled even Jeremy's own skills. From what Jeremy could piece together from one quick glimpse, it seemed that Keifer was trying to make seven stones containing mystical powers.

"I know you may be shocked" Keifer began as he continued typing, not looking away from the program, "but I've never met anyone who was able to even begin understanding ANY of this, except for an old friend of mine who moved away" he added blankly, still typing.

"I… I could help you" Jeremy said to him. It was a saturday afternoon and a certain someone wasn't rearing his ugly head, so he figured he had time.

"You'd really do that?" Keifer asked, suddenly looking away from his computer for the first time. "For a freak like me who everyone keeps staring at?"

"Hey, in my eyes, you aren't a freak, but rather, a really cool person" he said to him with a smile, cheering Keifer up.

"In that case" Keifer said, finishing his Chilli dog and closing his computer, "Meet me in our dorm" he said before leaving the cafeteria behind.

"So how did it go?" Yumi asked him as Jeremy sat back down.

"You guys won't believe this" he began telling them about the program Keifer was making, which shocked them all.

"So why would he want seven gems of power exactly?" Ulrich asked. "I mean, he could possibly something XANA sent from Lyoko, right?" he asked Jeremy, who was lost in thought.

"No, it can't be" he said. "XANA has never been able to recreate human emotions right, and to top that, Keifer is very human" he added. "After all, XANA would need to activate a tower in order to make a fake person, and there isn't one active right now"

"True" Aelita stated. "Well, me and Yumi were going to go see a movie. Anyone wanna come along?" she asked as the two stood up.

"Nah, me and Ulrich are gonna have a video game marathon" Odd said, standing up and stretching.

"And I agreed to help Keifer" Jeremy said. "Which in turn, should hopefully get us some answers" he added before leaving the group with a goodbye.

"Huh, I never thought you'd make it" Keifer joked as Jeremy walked in and pulled out his own computer. "I actually managed to get the program working!" he added excitedly showing Jeremy the test results he had gotten.

"That's great!" Jeremy said to him. "But how do you plan on using them?" he asked him curiously. Keifer's mood seemed to change for a minute, like he was feeling a tremendous pain.

"Can you keep a secret?" he finally asked quietly after a few moments. Jeremy reluctantly nodded and Keifer began speaking again. "If I can somehow manage to get them from my computer to the real world, then I'd be able to use their power through this" he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a shiny object.

"What is that?" Jeremy asked him cautiously.

"It's the Power Ring" Keifer told him, handing him the radiant ring. "It's infinite energy can basically double my power and speed" he explained as Jeremy marveled the glow it gave off. "It was a gift that my Uncle and another scientist worked on before… before my uncle Chuck was assassinated" he said quietly.

"I'm sorry to hear that" Jeremy said to him. "What happened to the other scientist?"

"After that and something else, he went under the radar with his family before disappearing" Keifer explained. "That's what I recall anyway"

Before either of them could speak again, Jeremy's computer started beeping and a program flashed on his screen with a red danger sign.

"Something wrong?" Keifer asked him as the boy tried getting ahold of his friends, but to no avail.

"Very wrong" Jeremy said quickly before taking off without another word.

"Hey!" Keifer yelled, catching up to him instantly, scaring Jeremy. "Whatever you need help with, I'll help you! After all, you were willing to help me, weren't you?" Keifer looked at the blonde before he nodded.

"First, we need to get William then" Jeremy said as they rounded the corner before slamming into someone else, causing them all to fall down.

"Ouch" the person who'd been on the receiving end said.

"Sorry about that" JEremy said before realising it was William. "William!" he exclaimed, seeing his friend. "Are you feeling better?"

"Still feeling like trash, but I'm up" he said before looking to Keifer who had just gotten up, still slightly dazed. "It can't be…" he said in shock.

"William, is that you?" Keifer asked, coming out of his daze. "Like, THE William Dunbar?"

"It's been so long since I've seen you old friend" he said to Keifer as they shook hands.

"You still the troublemaker I once knew?" Keifer asked him jokingly.

"Are you still the blue blur that can run a breezy 500 miles per hour?" he asked him, giving him his answer.

"I hate to break up the budding bromance guys, but we've got other problems!" Jeremy said.

"XANA?" William asked, his expression changing from happy to annoyed.

"And I can't get ahold of the others" Jeremy said to him.

"It's a good thing you bought Keifer with us" William said to him as they headed off for the factory.

"So who exactly is 'XANA'?" Keifer asked them, having to constantly slow down to their pace instead of keeping his own.

"Basically, an evil computer virus bent on world domination. Oh, and it really wants us dead" William explained to him as they reached the factory entrance.

"The only way we can stop him is by deactivating towers in this virtual world called Lyoko" he told Keifer as they reached the ropes leading down.

"These are too slow for me" he said as he jumped up, curled in a blue ball before landing on the floor ahead of the others.

"Didn't know you could do that" William remarked as they went down the large freight elevator.

"How do you even run that fast?" Jeremy asked him.

"It's a long story, but we don't have time right now!" Keifer exclaimed in shock as the elevator opened to the Super Computer, only to reveal a spectre attacking it.

"Jeremy, watch out!" William yelled, shoving the two of them out of the way as it fired a large bolt of energy at them.

"I've got this!" Keifer yelled, jumping in a ball again, but this time, his hands were still out and he was spinning himself faster than before.

"Holy -" before Jeremy could finish his sentence, Keifer had slammed through the spectre with tremendous force and speed, shattering it into a thousand red pixels.

"Told you he was a blue blur" William said to him as Jeremy ran to the super computer.

"Keifer, I need you to understand that Lyoko is very dangerous. Usually we have the whole group decide, but in my eyes, you've proven yourself more than enough. So can you prove to me that you can be part of the Lyoko Warriors?" he asked him.

"I… I can!" Keifer said, putting one fist forward and shaking it. "If it means protecting the world then I'll do it!"

"Good answer! Now get down to the scanners" Jeremy said to the two of them.

"Just follow my lead" William said to his friend as they each made it down to the scanning room and entered a respective scanner.

"Scanner, William!" Jeremy called as the tubes closed. "Scanner Keifer!" he called once more. "Sending, and virtualization!" he yelled, hitting enter on his keyboard as the two were swept away from the real world into the digital one. It was at that moment, Keifer knew he could trust them.

 **A/N;** I have NO clue what happened with the formatting towards the middle. My apologies.


	2. Work and Chill (CHAP2)

Chapter 2; Work and Chill

As Keifer opened his eyes, he realised that he was falling towards the ground.

"Whoa!" he said quickly, curling into his ball position and landing safely. "Where the heck are we?" he asked William who had landed next to him. For miles on end all he could see was…

"We're in Lyoko's Ice Sector" William said to him. "Just follow me and I'll fill you in" he said as the two took off, Keifer remembering to slow himself enough so William could keep up. His form hadn't changed much. His clothes had been replaced with a light blue fursuit similar to Odd's. His chest had been replaced with light peach fur and he now had a pair of white gloves.

"The tower is due North and over those cliffs" Jeremie's voice startled Keifer, causing him to slip.

"Thanks for letting us know" William called back to him as Keifer stood up.

"Man, I hate ice, but water even more!" he said as they kept going. Keifer took note of what William was saying as he began explaining how Lyoko worked and what exactly XANA was. "When you put it like that, it sounds as though it's like a complicated game of chess" Keifer said to him when William finished.

"That's one way of putting it. We're here by the way" William pointed to the tower, which was heavily guarded.

"So are those Mega-Tanks?" Keifer asked him, remembering how William described each monster.

"Three of them and a swarm of hornets. Wonderful" he muttered.

"Guys you need to be quick! He's drawing energy from the tower for something!" Jeremie said to them.

"Then let's blast through with speed!" Keifer said as he and William managed to get the upper-hand on the monsters, causing them to scatter a bit.

"Super smoke!" William cried as he turned into a purple cloud of darkness and bounced to the top of a Mega-Tank. "Impact!" he yelled, stabbing his sword through its eye, causing it to explode, sending him back a bit.

"Careful William, that explosion took 20 life points out of you!" Jeremie chided him.

"I wonder what moves I have" Keifer thought aloud, dodging several lasers from the Hornets. Then one clicked in his mind. "Super… SPIN!" he yelled, jumping up and putting his feet together before landing on the tips of them both. Using his speed, he begun spinning so fast he created a blue twister, sucking in the hornets before slamming them out, defeating all five of them.

"How did you do that?" Jeremie asked him, bewildered by Keifer's power as William decimated the second Tank, leaving only one.

"I dunno, it just clicked with me" Keifer said, shrugging his shoulders. He then felt another move pop up in his mind. "Spin Dash!" he yelled, curling up and charging an insane amount of speed before colliding with the last monster like a super-powered chain saw, causing it to explode on impact.

"Great job!" William said, high-fiving him before walking into the large tower. Keifer watched with a craned neck as the smoke above it went from an evil looking shade of red to white.

"Alright, I'm bringing you both back in" Jeremie said as William exited the tower. Keifer smiled as the two of them began devirtualizing into white pixels before appearing in the scanners on Earth.

"Grea - Keifer!" Jeremie cried out as Keifer face planted hard out of his scanner, William failing to catch him.

"Keifer, say something!" William shook his friend.

"S… something…" he coughed out, struggling to come to his senses. "I feel… totally wiped" he said to the two, sitting up groggily.

"What do you think happened?" William asked JEremie worriedly.

"Maybe his power causes this. The fact that he easily out-powered anything any of us have ever done" he said.

"So you think his body was just exhausted?"

"Basically" Jeremie responded as Keifer struggled up, a bit of blood trickling from his nose.

"Fantastic" he muttered as the three returned to the elevator and returned to the surface.

"It'll probably get better the more times you go to Lyoko" Jeremie reassured him as the elevator opened up to reveal a worried Yumi, Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd.

"We didn't get your calls until just now, what happened?" Aelita asked him before noticing Keifer and how he looked beat up.

"What the heck are you doing here?" Ulrich asked him.

"I should ask you why you weren't here sooner to help your friend!" Keifer said, slightly agitated.

"Something was stopping the Cell towers, and we put two and two together and rushed over here" Odd said to him before the two could start fighting. "But that doesn't answer his question. Why ARE you here?"

"Yeah Jeremie. Especially someone you met just today" Yumi added with a sideways glance to Keifer.

"Guys, let us explain ourselves" William said with a few coughs, his sickness nearly gone but not quite. "You guys weren't responding and Keifer happened to be with us"

"He's also practically the fastest thing alive" JEremie added quickly to try and get rid of everyone's angry tones.

"Prove it" Ulrich said to him, still mad at him for thinking that he had ignored Jeremie.

"Okay then" Keifer said. He begun revving himself up, his feet moving so fast they turned into a red infinity symbol before he took off to the other side of the factory and back in a mere 3 seconds.

"What the…" Aelita's words of shock pretty much summed up how everyone was feeling, aside from Jeremie and William who had already had this revelation.

"Now can I relax for a bit please?" Keifer asked them all nicely. "I feel like I got hit by a truck"

"I think you've earned it my friend" William said to him as the others didn't even talk.

"Now you should see him on Lyoko" Jeremie said to the others as they all left the factory together.

"Sorry we weren't here to help" Odd said to him as they crossed the bridge towards the forest.

"Even if you were, I don't think there would have

Been any monsters for you guys" he said, recapping the days battle to them.

"Man, that sounds like complete overkill" Yumi said as William told them about Keifer's super spin.

"I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that" Aelita added as William finished summing up what had happened.

"And now Keifer is part of the team" Jeremie concluded.

"I can't agree more" Odd said as they made it back to the school in time for dinner. "It's spaghetti tonight!" he cheered, charging ahead of everyone and into the large building.

"Knucklehead" Keifer joked as they walked in to find that Odd had already gotten his plate and was devouring it at the table.

"You should see him when it's Gravy and Meatballs" Ulrich told him as they got their food and went to sit down.

"I miss my mom's cooking" Yumi muttered as they begun eating. Her father had gotten a job opportunity back in Japan, but Yumi didn't want to go. Thus, she got a dorm at Kadic which happened to be with Aelita.

"I can't blame you" Jeremie said through a forkful of Spaghetti. "But hey, at least Rosa's cooking has improved a lot, considering they upgraded all the kitchen equipment" he added.

"It's pretty good in my opinion" Keifer said, stabbing a meatball with his fork. "But the best thing I've ever eaten are Chilli dogs, and I have undoubtedly the best recipe in the world for those"

"He's not kidding" William said. He decided to join them rather than go back to bed as he felt that the sickness had been fully purged from his body. "He's the one who made me like hotdogs" he added as he finished his dinner.

"That's cool" Odd said, eating his third bowl of Spaghetti. "I'll have to try them some time"

"How about tonight?" Keifer asked him. "I can take you guys to my house" he said.

"Like a guys night or something?" Ulrich asked him. Keifer nodded. "Then I'm down" he said, handing his bowl to Odd.

"How about we all go, in case something happens?" Aelita asked.

"The more, the better" Keifer smiled as they dumped their plates, all except Odd anyway, who crammed the rest of it in his mouth.

"Whphm Umph!" he said to them as they begun leaving, causing them all to laugh.

"Sorry, we don't understand Spaghetti Monster" Yumi said to him as he swallowed hard as they left the campus grounds and out into the starry night.

"You guys gave me no time to finish" he whined as they entered the city. "Plus, you KNOW I love Spaghetti!" he added with a huff.

"Well excuse us, next time will give the big king all the time he needs to eat" Ulrich joked as they stopped in front of a large mansion.

"We're here" Keifer said to them as he put in a code on a padlocked gate.

"Holy cow!" Jeremie gasped at the size of the house. "You're rich?" he asked as the gates swung open.

"I WAS" Keifer corrected him as they walked up the long cobbled pathway and past an old, crumbling fountain covered in vines and bushes.

"This place is ancient" Aelita said, noticing the fading paint on the walls.

"It's been in my family for 125 years" Keifer explained to them as he pulled a small key out of his pocket and opened the large, old oak door. "The only reason it hasn't been demolished is because of the fact my Great Great Grandfather had deep roots with the city" he said as they walked into the living room, which was huge. All the furniture was covered in white sheets except for a long couch, table, and a recliner, with a large T.V mounted on the North wall.

"What happened to this place?" Odd asked him as he lead them through the living room, past the fancy Dining room and then into the kitchen.

"My parents passed away when I was young, along with my sister. They were my only family, as my Uncle had passed away before them" he explained. "My dad still had a small fortune and I was living off of it up until now when I decided I really needed to start pursuing my Education" he told them.

"That's a bummer" Yumi said to him.

"Sorry to hear that" Ulrich stated, leaning on the counter next to the entrance.

"Don't worry about it" Keifer said. "My dad and mom were horrible towards me. My sister, on VERY rare occasion, would say something to me" he told them as he begun getting ingredients out for his Chilli Dogs. "All that aside though, let's get to cooking!" he told them as he began giving instructions on what to get out, and what cabinets to open to find things.

"Think we got everything?" William asked him as he put a large pot of cold water on the middle stove to boil.

"Yep, all we need now is… crud!"

"What?" Odd asked him.

"I'm out of Chilli powder! I forgot to restock at the store last week" he face palmed.

"The Community Market is still open" Ulrich said, looking at the clock. "But only for five minutes"

"Grab on" Keifer said to him. "And the rest of you might want to grab something!" he added quickly as Ulrich reluctantly wrapped his arms around Keifer's neck. "We're gonna blast through with super speed!" he yelled, pulling his ring out. He held it up and a golden infinity symbol swirled around him. "Juice time!" he yelled, zooming out of the house at top speed, almost causing everyone to go flying had it not been for his warning.

"Turn left here!" Ulrich told him as they passed some Skyscrapers. Keifer did so so fluently Ulrich didn't even see any kind of motion blur.

"I see it now!" Keifer called to him over the wind, beginning to slow down and stop in front of the white building covered in food ads. "Now let's go get some Chilli powder" he said, pulling out his wallet and fishing out a five.

"You… go on without me" Ulrich said, sitting on a bench next to the door. "That was… a little too fast for me"

"Okay then" Keifer said, walking in and heading to the spices rack. "Bingo!" he said, grabbing the 'zesty' Chilli Powder. "I should probably get a case of drinks…" he thought to himself before walking to the soda isle and getting a 14 pack of Cherry Soda.

"Your total will be $4.50" the woman at the counter said to him as he was checking out.

"Here you go" he said, handing her the five before getting his change back. He left with the Chilli Powder in a small paper bag and the case of soda in his other hand as he found Ulrich standing up and waiting. "Feeling better?" he asked him.

"Yeah, some-what" he said groggily.

"Well, we've still got the return trip"

"Then let's get it over with" Ulrich said, grabbing on to him before they took off, getting back to the house and into the kitchen in a mere half minute.

"Only 3 minutes" Yumi said to him as he pulled out the sodas and Chilli Powder.

"I've been faster" Keifer said. "And I think our good buddy Ulrich gets Speed Sickness" he added jokingly.

"I am never doing that again" he said, popping open a soda and chugging half of it as Keifer made his special Chilli.

"Hey Will, get into the fridge and grab the hot dogs" Keifer said to him as he set the chilli to simmer.

"Alright" he said, pulling out a massive 24 pack. "This gonna be enough?" he asked.

"Should be" Keifer said as he added a few extra spices to his Chilli. He then dumped the hot dogs in the water and began conversing with everyone. "So how long have you guys been fighting XANA?" he asked them.

"For nearly two years" Odd said to him. "When Jeremie turned the Super Computer off, he discovered Aelita and we made it our goal to get her here to Earth"

"And once we succeeded, we couldn't shut off the super computer, otherwise it would've killed Aelita as XANA had them both tethered together" Yumi continued.

"And a while after that, I joined the group, but ended up getting possessed by that jellyfish thing for almost half a year" William said to him, shuddering slightly. "It was my fault though, had I listened to Aelita, it wouldn't have happened"

"Don't be hard on yourself" she said to him. "We couldn't have known what XANA was up to" she reassured him.

"Well, on a brighter note, the food is done" Keifer said to them as he pulled the hotdogs out of the pot and put them on a plate next to some buns. "You guys get yours made, I'm gonna go set up the dining room" he said to them, zipping off to the room next door. "And done!" he said proudly, zipping back in in 10 seconds.

"Dang" Odd said as he made his plate and walked back into the now clean dining room. "How do you do it?" he asked him as they all sat down and begun eating.

"Just a little bit of speed" Keifer said, turning on the T.V in the corner and flipping it to the late night news.

"These are so good!" Jeremie said in between bites.

"Agreed" Odd said, finally breathing again after devouring his third one.

"Listen Odd" Keifer said jokingly. "THIS is how it's done" he tossed his loaded Chilli Dog in the air and let it fall in his mouth before patting his stomach and burping. "'Scuse me" he said.

"I have to agree, these are the first, and probably best Chilli dogs I'll ever eat" Aelita said to him, finishing hers.

"Like I said, it's all in my secret recipe, which took three long days to perfect" he said as they finished.

"Well, that definitely seemed worth it" Ulrich said to him in response. "So should we all head back now?"

"Yeah, that seems to be the best thing we can do" William said.

"I can't agree more" Keifer said, stretching before grabbing everyone's empty plates and zooming off into the kitchen for a brief moment before returning. "Everything is put away, so we shou-"

"We repeat, this is not a joke!" everyone turned towards the the female news reporter was panicking. "There is a ten-ton meteor sailing right towards us as I speak. We are doomed!" she cried as the broadcast went out.

"She can't be serious!" Jeremie moaned as they all ran out of the house.

"But she is" Keifer pointed to the sky, where in the distance, the meteor was coming right at them, except it was surrounded in a black aura that kept flashing the XANA symbol.


	3. One Shot to Stop them All (CHAP3)

Chapter 3; One Shot to Stop them All.

"Everyone, for a chain!" Keifer yelled, realising that they needed to be quick. As soon as Aelita had grabbed onto JEremie in the back, Keifer zoomed off in a multi-color blur making it to the factory bridge in almost no time flat. Except stopping with him plus six different people didn't work too well. He ended up tripping, which sent them all flying across the bridge.

"Oww!" Odd yelled as Yumi landed on him while Keifer went sailing over them and face planted. William had been tosses to the side and Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aelita had all piled up.

"Sorry guys" Keifer said to them as they all got up and ran into the factory.

"It's fine" Yumi said as they ran for the ropes and Keifer jumped down for the freight elevator.

"Jeremie, I have an idea" Keifer said to him. "You remember my program?" he asked him, causing the blonde's eyes to go wide with shock.

"Yeah but…! That might work, seeing as the meteorite is controlled by XANA!" he said, snapping his fingers.

"What are you guys talking about exactly?" William asked them as they reached the scanners.

"You guys just wait here!" Jeremie said to them all, going back up a floor to the Super Computer and running the program Keifer had made.

"Cover your eyes!" Jeremie yelled to them as the entire scanner room flashed with a bright, multi-colored light.

"AGHHHH!" Keifer roared with energy as the light settled and seven colorful gems swirled around him at hyper speed.

"Whoa!" Odd yelled with shock as a golden beam rose up from where Keifer was, revealing that his form had completely changed.

"What the…" Yumi and the others stared in awe at Keifer's changed appearance. His blue spikes and hair now glowing gold, and his eyes a burning red, along with his clothes glowing a light yellow as well.

"This is it!" he said to them all. "XANA must have activated a tower and in theory, if I impact with the meteor and you guys deactivate it simultaneously, it should break into nothing!" he said, closing his eyes and concentrating. When he opened them, he realised he had successfully sent them all to Lyoko faster than the scanners could.

"Now get to the meteor!" Jeremie called down to him, but not before throwing him an earpiece with a green lense. "It'll show you the best impact spot!" he yelled as Keifer teleported off and out into the night, where he could hear people's screams of panic from the nearby city.

"It's time I end this!" Keifer yelled, zooming off for the meteor, a storm forming in the sky.

"JEremie, the tower is swamped with monsters!" Ulrich sad on his end to him, hacking away at an army of Kankerlots while everyone else was fighting the small army of nearly fifty monsters.

"We need your help!" Aelita cried as two MEga-Tanks rolled up to her.

"She's right!" Yumi yelled, using her telekinesis to lift Odd into the air, allowing him to shoot the Mega-Tanks better.

"But I…"

"Jermie!" William cried as two SKypezoah's floated up from behind the tower.

"Jeremie, I can't hold on for much longer!" Keifer warned him as he neared the meteor, but his form was beginning to flicker.

"Guys, I'm coming!" he yelled, finally deciding to join them. He opened the auto-virtualization program, but another one as well. As soon as they were opened, he ran down to the scanners.

"Gah, not this again!" William cried out as the Skypezoah threw his blade away.

"William, WATCH OUT!" a familiar voice yelled. He jumped away just in time as a large, stone pillar slashed up out of the ground and right through the first Skypezoah.

"Jeremie…" he said, flabbergasted. The blonde was standing there, his outfit being much different than any the others had seen. He had brown combat boots, white slacks, and a green hoodie, along with a shield with the Lyoko symbol. Where his glasses would have been was a set of futuristic looking visors. And his right hand was enclosed in a steel, gem covered gauntlet.

"Now for the next one…" he closed his eyes and held his gauntlet up. More stone pillars appeared before zooming together and crushing the last Skypezoah.

"Jeremie, I'm running out of time!" Keifer called to him through the Mic piece as he neared the meteor. Unfortunately for him, the impact point was the center.

"Aelita, the tower!" he said quickly, devirtualizing himself and returning to the super computer. "Wait for my mark!" he added, situating himself at the keyboard.

"I'm gonna impact!" Keifer yelled, curling up into a golden ball and charging with power.

"Now Aelita!" Jeremie cried as Keifer unleashed his power, sending him forward with a power he had never felt. As soon as the tower deactivated, Keifer smashed through the meteor.

"Just… a little… MORE!" he yelled, pushing through the rest as it split into two before exploding into nothing. "I did it…" he silently whispered as his form flickered out and he returned to his normal self. "And now… I'm gonna die in space…" he said before realising that he was falling back to Earth. "AGHHH!" he cried.

"Guys!" Jeremie panicked as everyone returned to the real world. "I can't launch a return to the past, the program I ran to give myself those powers was too much strain!"

"That means…"

"Keifer" Yumi began speaking in a calm, serious voice through the head piece she nabbed from Jeremie.

"Yeah?" he asked quickly, sailing through the air.

"You're gonna need to land curled in a ball in the river next to the bridge"

"But I can't swim!" he yelled to her, the ground looking like it couldn't wait to high-five his face.

"Do you wanna die?!" she asked him.

"Okay, fine!" he yelled, slowly but steadily positioning himself above the river. As it came up closer and closer, he caught a glimpse of the others watching from the bridge before curling up. "CANON BALL!" he yelled, smashing into the water, several feet deep, bouncing off the bottom before jumping onto the grass. "Yuck, I hate water!" he said, shaking it off of him before noticing how he had soaked the others. "Sorry about that" he said to them.

"It's fine" Odd said to him as they all, just stared into the empty night sky.

"So what do we do now?" Keifer asked them. "Surely everyone will want to know what happened to the meteor"

"I'm sure the Government will pass it off as a weapon test of some sort" Jeremie assured him. "Now then, I think some sleep is something that we could all use right now" and everyone nodded in agreement and headed back to Kadic, but not before some questions arose.

"So Project:CHAOS worked?" Keifer asked him. "By that I mean, the program didn't explode when you ran it right?"

"Well, those stones are still with you, but the program broke after you destroyed the meteor" Jeremie explained to him. "So yes, it worked, but how do the stones remain…"

"I'd rather not think about that question" Keifer said. "I'm actually shocked that it worked the right way"

"What would have happened if it didn't?" Odd asked him.

"I might've been vaporized, or the stones would've exploded. Or both" Keifer said with a shudder as they all walked to the dorm wing. "See you all in the morning" he said as everyone split up with their roommate to head to their dorms. But it wouldn't be morning when he saw them, as unbeknownst to them all, Keifer was being watched.


	4. Taken (CHAP4)

Chapter 4; Taken

As Keifer sat up, he quickly realised something was horribly wrong. His eyes zoomed around until he realised he was in a dark, cramped space. He tried to move his arms and legs only to find them bound up in ropes. He looked to his left side and gasped. Odd was there, but he wasn't looking so good. He had several cuts and his left eye was swollen shut.

"Odd…" Keifer whispered as his friend struggled to wake up.

"Keifer… I'm sorry…" he whispered.

"For what?" he asked him quietly as he realised that they were in the back of a speedy truck.

"When I realised that they had you… I tried fighting back…" Odd begun explaining to him that the night before, some men in black ahd snuck into the school and kidnapped Keifer. Odd had seen this and tried fighting them, only to end up badly injured and bound up as well.

"I might be able to break the ropes" Keifer said to him as he tried to curl up in a ball, but to no avail.

"What if you tried using the stones?" Odd asked him quietly as they were bumped around.

"I'll try" Keifer said, closing his eyes and focusing on the gems deep power. He roared with power as he turned into his Super form with blinding light. "Alright!" he said, breaking out of his bonds with renewed strength. He begun untying Odd's ropes when he suddenly heard the truck stop.

"Crap!" he whispered as Keifer sped up the process, but not before the back doors swung open to reveal two men in black.

"You!" One of them said, pulling out his pistol. He shot it at Keifer and it was as if time slowed. Keifer had covered his arms and realised the world was moving in slow motion. Then his mind clicked. " _Hyper Speed"_ he thought to himself as he quickly untied Odd and grabbed the bullet, smashing it in his hands. But right as he did, he lost his focus, causing the slow down to end.

"What the…" the other one was shocked to see the broken bullet.

"Odd, let's go, NOW!" Keifer cried, grabbing his friend and flying out of the truck and into the blinding morning sun before realising he was screwed through and through.

"FIRE!" a voice yelled. Before Keifer could take off, ultra strong ropes surrounded his body, slamming him to the ground, causing Odd to go falling down not to far from him, knocking him out.

"Odd!" Keifer reared up with power, but it didn't work. "Only one person could make something like this…" he growled to himself as a familiar, ugly face walked up to him. "Ivo…" Keifer sneered as the scientist walked up to him, holding his stomach and laughing a laugh of pure evil.

"Finally I've caught you, after all these years!" he laughed evilly. "All because you weren't fast enough" he said, kicking Keifer in the face.

"It's gonna take a lot more than that to hurt me" Keifer said angrily, trying to struggle out of his bonds with brute force.

"Oh we'll see about that" he said darkly. "I had orders from Tyron to get that dreaded Power Ring from you. After all, Franz and Charles went behind his back and created it in an attempt to stop him" he said evilly as Keifer's form faded, causing him to feel tired suddenly.

"You killed my Uncle Chuck…" Keifer whispered, blood dripping from his mouth from where Ivo had kicked him.

"Yes, and I enjoyed the look on your face when you saw him die, hopeless in my hands" he sneered in Keifer's face. "Let me see the Cell Splitter, it's time we get that Power Ring and end him" Ivo said to a man on his left from the brigade of transport vehicles. He nodded and soon returned with what seemed to be a large, gun-like weapon. "Goodbye, rodent" He said, pulling the trigger.

"NO!" Odd cried out in agony as he jumped in the way, intercepting the weapon's only shot.

"Odd, NO!" Keifer yelled in a storm of tears, rage flooding his body as he pulled more power than before from the Power Ring, his mind channeling dark thoughts and energy before his body became surrounded in a black aura, before turning him into the opposite of his Super Form. Instead of gold, his colors were now black and dark gray.

"Impossible!" Ivo said as Odd crumpled to the ground before him, seeing Keifer's form.

"You sick twisted…" Keifer's eyes shot open only to reveal complete, blinding whiteness as he screeched in agony, putting his hands together before a ball of dark energy began forming.

"Wait, please…!" Ivo could only scream as his voice was drowned out by the power of the dark sphere Keifer launched at them, it now being the size of a mansion.

"That'll teach you…" he muttered, his voice sounding demonic. The sphere had vaporized Ivo, along with his entire crew and transport set up. Keifer then realised the lifeless body of Odd Della Robia. "No…" he whispered, his dark form fading as he stumbled over to his friend.

"Keifer…" he whispered very quietly, barely hanging on to his last snuffs of life.

"Odd, wait, there's gotta be something I can do!" Keifer was tearful as he focused his mind. He then realised he was holding the green gem.

"I think I'm broken beyond repair…" Odd whispered to him with a chuckle.

"Not if I have something to say about that" Keifer said to him in a tearful voice, holding the Green Emerald up before it slowly floated to Odd's forehead.

"What the…!" Odd suddenly felt a new surge of life enter his body as the emerald disappeared in a shower of light above him.

"Odd, you're good as new!" Keifer cheered at the sight of the gem's healing properties. All of Odd's wounds had been healed, and not a single trace of them remained except for a few rips in his clothing which had mended themselves.

"You're right…!" he said, jumping up. "And I feel… powerful as well!" he said excitedly, feeling a surge of speed within him. "I think the power of the Emerald is giving me an after-burner!" he said to Keifer. "We must be a few hundred miles out, based on the mountains, but if we turn around, I'm sure we can get back to Kadic in no time flat!"

"Then let's do it to it!" Keifer and Odd both high-fived, the remaining excess power from the gem that had healed Odd causing a sound clap. He grabbed on as Keifer revved up and bolted off at top speed.

About twenty minutes later, they had entered the city and Odd could see the Kadic grounds.

"Keifer, HIT THE BRAKES!" he yelled as someone had

Stepped out in front of them, not knowing that they were coming.

"AHH!" they yelled as Keifer and Odd collided with them, sending them all flying into the grass next to the sidewalk.

"Sorry about the break-neck speed" Keifer said to

them, giving him a hand after realising he was a boy.

"Wait a minute!" he said, jumping back slightly. "You're Keifer, my uncle told me about you!" he said, not believing what he saw.

"Who the heck is your Uncle?" Odd asked him, rubbing

the back of his sore neck as he stood up.

"Jim. Jim Morales. I'm his nephew, Peter Morales"

 **A/N;** I'm sorry that this chapter, along with the third was shorter than the others. I've been under stress recently and hadn't gotten past it until today. So I promise that the next chapter will be much longer than the others!


	5. Lost Sanctuary Part 1 (CHAP5)

Chapter 5; Lost Sanctuary Part 1

"I never knew Jim had a nephew!" Odd exclaimed after Peter introduced himself.

"Well, now you know" Peter said. "I'm actually transferring to Kadic today from the USA" he explained to them as they got up to the gates, Jim waiting for them with a stern look directed at Odd and Keifer.

"Where have you two been?" he asked angrily.

"We were..." Keifer failed to think of an explanation as Peter spoke up again quickly.

"I asked them to give me a tour of the town" Peter said to him, giving his Uncle a hug. "And it's good to see you again" he added.

"I'm glad to see you too. But these two over here -" he pointed at Keifer and Odd "Got lucky that classes were cancelled today"

"What happened?" Odd asked Jim, who was leading them back onto the grounds.

"There was an explosion in the Science wing way earlier this morning. We couldn't find the cause of it though" he said to them as he lead Peter up to the Male's dorms. "Now then, seeing as you three seem to know each other, I want you to show Peter around" he said, knocking on William's door.

"Come in!" he yelled from inside the room. When Jim entered, he was shocked to see Keifer and Odd, but not that shocked to see Peter.

"Ah, Dunbar. This is your new roommate, my nephew Peter" he said to him. "I hope that you can explain things to him while I get him a mattress"

"Will do" William said, not taking his eyes off of Keifer and Odd. "Where the hell have you been?" he asked them worriedly and angrily as Jim left the room.

"We'll tell you later" Keifer said to him as Jim returned, placing the bed in William's room for Peter.

"Thanks Unc" he said as Jim waved as he left the room. "So what should I-" he hadn't realized that William, Keifer, and Odd had all taken off without him even noticing.

"There you are!" Jeremie said to them as Keifer and Odd followed William into the factory and down to the Super Computer room. "Where were you guys?"

"That's a long story" Odd said as he and Keifer took it in turns to explain what happened earlier that morning.

"That's crazy" Aelita said, breaking the silence at long last. "Who would've thought that my father helped create the power ring" she murmured.

"And here is the thing, I found out I have more than one form with the emeralds" Keifer told them about his dark form he had transformed into when Odd had been shot.

"So you have a form of rage and another of good?" Ulrich asked him.

"Basically" Keifer said as they finished up the story, including the last part about Jim's nephew.

"Overall, it's been a pretty hectic day for us" Odd said to them as he sat down.

"Same for us" William said. "XANA activated a tower in the Ice Sector and I nearly got possessed again" he said darkly.

"That sucks" Keifer said, remembering the pain William described to him that had been those several months of him being trapped under XANA's control.

"But we also found out something cool" Yumi said.

"There is another sector on Lyoko that just recently showed up" Jeremie said, somewhat giddily.

"Wait, really?" Odd asked him unbelieving. Keifer also gave him a 'really' look as well.

"Yes, really! We also found traces of Franz Hopper's code there as well! Now it's only a matter of time before we can bring him back to the real world" Jeremie said to them happily. "But here is the problem, that sector,the new one, is being monitored by someone else as well, but we don't know who" he added.

"Then we'll need to keep an eye on it ourselves, right?" Odd asked him.

"Right, hence why I already sat up a program to monitor activity, AND to communicate with Franz" he added smartly.

"That's great" Keifer said yawning, feeling tired from the hundreds of miles he had ran, and his Dark form had taken its' total on him. "Seeing as classes are cancelled today, whose up for some Pizza at that Italian restaurant not too far from Kadic?" he asked all of them, remembering it as he zoomed by it earlier.

"I'm down" Ulrich said as the other nodded happily as they all proceeded up the elevator.

"So what kind of Pizza does everyone like?" Keifer asked them as he pulled out his phone to order and get a table ahead of time.

"Meat Lovers" Odd and William said in unison.

"Pepperoni" Aelita said to him.

"So do I" Jeremie added.

"I'm fine with any kind" Yumi said to him.

"Hawaiian" Ulrich said. Everyone except Keifer looked at him like he wasn't human.

"Hawaiian is good" Keifer said, finding the places number and placing their order. "They said it won't be ready for about thirty minutes, so let's walk" he said to them as they got up and out of the factory back into the afternoon light.

"Your Dark form looked creepy" Odd said to him as they exited the Kadic grounds. "You looked kinda evil when you summoned that huge white sphere" he added, shivering slightly.

"If I hadn't done that, we both probably would've died" Keifer said to him as the group walked down the street. "I was struggling to keep my form during that, more than I did with the asteroid. I almost lost myself to all of that rage and hatred..." he trailed off with a dark look in his eyes. "Needless to say, Ivo is gone along with the others"

"Why didn't you tell us sooner that they were following you?" Jeremie asked him as they entered the Pizza restaurant and sat down at a table in the back.

"I didn't want you guys worrying" Keifer said to him honestly as he told the waiter who he was and about their order. Everyone told the waiter a drink and they continued talking. "I thought that if i didn't tell you guys, he would just forget about me"

"Not like that matters now" Yumi said. "He's gone, at least according to you"

"He and his entire crew were sucked into that vortex to who knows where" Keifer said to her again. "I didn't even know that A; I had a second super transformation and B; I could even do that" he reminded her as the waiter brought them their drinks before going to help some other people in the loud restaurant.

"Look, all that matters is that we're alive" Odd said to them before they could worry more. "Had it not been for Keifer, I would've died"

"True" Jeremie said, thinking back to that part of the story they had shared with them. "But that cell splitter thing, and the name Tyron, they BOTH sound so... evil" he said, shivering slightly.

"Do you think that's who is monitoring the Sixth Sector?" Ulrich asked him as their food arrived at long last and everyone begun digging in.

"He did have a connection with Franz, so maybe. We can ask him through the new program once we get back" Jeremie said to him, biting into a slice of Pepperoni Pizza.

"But for now, let's just stop worrying and relax" Keifer said, devouring a large slice of Hawaiian pizza as Peter walked in to the restaurant. He hadn't noticed them, but he did take a seat a few up from them.

"So that's Peter?" Yumi asked Keifer, William and Odd quietly.

"Yep" Keifer said, finally noticing how Peter's outfit looked kinda similar to Jim's. He had a red, plain t-shirt on and brown cargo pants that looked kinda baggy. "And we collided at break-neck speed" he added blatantly. "Well almost anyway, I slowed down enough to not hurt him"

"That's good" Ulrich said, eating his second slice of Pizza.

After a few minutes of eating in silence, everyone had gotten their fill and Keifer had the waiter bring them the check, which was nearly thirty bucks. He pulled out his wallet and dropped a fifty as the pay and for a tip as they left. Unbeknownst to them though, Peter noticed them. He himself had finished and got a to-go box for his Uncle before following after the others. He had no bad intentions, but only the intention to make new friends.


	6. Lost Sanctuary Part 2 (CHAP6)

Chapter 6; Lost Sanctuary Part 2

Unbeknownst to the Lyoko Warriors, Peter was following behind them. As said before, he had no bad intentions, he just wanted to know what they were up to.

"When we get to the factory, I'll establish a link with Franz so we can all speak to him" Jeremie said as they entered the woods, losing Peter. He sighed in defeat and went over to where he saw his uncle, who was doing some exercises in the gym.

"Hey, thanks Peter for going and picking this up" he said to his nephew, patting him on the back. Then he realized he looked upset. "What's wrong?" he asked him.

"Nothing" Peter said before doing some of his own exercises, whilst unknown to him, the others had made it to the factory.

"Franz is the one who created Lyoko, right?" Keifer asked the question as everyone pilled into the elevator.

"Yep" Aelita said to him as they descended to the Super Computer below. No one else spoke once the elevator door opened. Jeremie ran up to the computer and begun typing, connecting to Franz in the Sixth sector.

"You there Franz?" Jeremie asked through his mic.

"Yes, I'm here Belpois. Is everyone else here as well?" he asked, his voice sounding kind of distorted.

"We're all here Daddy" Aelita said to him.

"Okay good. I need you all to know that I've managed to create a program that will bring me back in" when he said this, everyone cheered. "But it comes with a cost" he said, quickly dampening everyone's mood. "If I leave Lyoko once and for all, we risk Tyron gaining control of XANA" he said to them all warningly. "And if he gains control of it, then defeating XANA once and for all might take much longer"

"Then that's a risk we're willing to take" Ulrich said.

"I agree" Odd said to Franz.

"With you, Jeremie, and Aelita working together in the real world, we'll be sure to get rid of XANA" William said.

"Okay then" he said. "I'm going to appear in my light form in the Sixth Sector, but I need you all to protect me while I send the program to Jeremie" Franz said to them.

"Will do" almost everyone said this in unison as they ran back to the elevator and down to the scanners while Jeremie typed away on the Super Computer, preparing the transfer.

"Let's do this!" Jeremie yelled as he transferred everyone to the sixth sector.

"What the heck is this place?" Keifer asked as they all landed on the gray ground. All he could see was a maze-like structure ahead, with some walls being taller than others and what he assumed was a large dome in the center.

"Welcome to the Sixth Sector" Franz said, floating up behind him in his light form, now having enough energy t talk in said form. "We need to get to the dome. It's the only way I can get the program to Jeremie" he said. Everyone nodded as he led the way through the maze.

"Guys there's something coming your way and it's really fast!" Jeremie told them.

"No way..." Keifer stared at said thing in shock, just like the others. Just then, a new voice begun speaking to them, a sinister sounding one as a matter of fact.

"Well well well" he said evilly. "If it isn't the blue blur himself" he chuckled darkly. "Looks like Ivo failed to kill you. How unfortunate"

"Tyron" Franz spoke. "Why did you betray me?"

"Simple" he said. "Power!" he laughed evilly.

"You're the one who had my Uncle killed!" Keifer yelled at Tyron in anger.

"That was just business, rodent" he said. "And before you is a little creation of mine built to end you, but not without a little fun, a wager you could call it" he sneered.

"What is it?" Keifer asked him angrily, charging up a peel-out aimed at the metal looking version of him.

"Simple. You race Metal Sonic around the sector" he said. "If you win, I don't send an endless horde of monsters at you and your friends and I might just let you get Franz out of Lyoko" Keifer smirked at this. Nothing had been able to beat him in a race. "But" Tyron began again, a hellish evil could be heard in his voice like holding back laughter. "If you lose, you get to be thrown in the Digital Sea, I get XANA, and your friends get turned over to the Skypezoahs" he laughed evilly.

"And what if he doesn't accept?" William growled, pulling out his sword.

"Oh, you wouldn't like that" Tyron said.

"Guys, I've got this" Keifer said, taking a look at the metal version of himself. "So you're called Metal Sonic huh? Well I bet I can beat yo-"

"GO!" Tyron yelled, catching Keifer off-guard.

"Hey - that's no fair!" he said, peeling out and catching up to Metal Sonic as they begun the race.

"Guys, there is an army of monsters heading your way!" Jeremie warned them.

"Then let's get Franz to the dome and hold them off!" Odd said as they took off, the monsters hot on their heels as the two speed king's clashed in their race.

"If you are me, then you may know everything I'm going to do!" Keifer began as he was right next to Metal, both of them being of the same power. "But that's not going to help you, because I know everything you're going to do! STRANGE, ISN'T IT?" he yelled with a laugh as he passed Metal, taking off with even more speed.

"Metal, DON'T LET HIM WIN!" Tyron roared at his creation who simply whirred and used his jet-thrust-er, catching up to Keifer in mere moments.

"What the...!" Metal had made it past him and was now zooming for what Keifer presumed to be the finish line. "I won't... let... you... WIN!" Keifer yelled with anger as he pushed himself even more, smashing past Metal Sonic and over the finish line, and into the weird, room-like structer there, which temporarily slammed shut behind him as Metal smashed into it, shattering him on impact. The entrance re-opened and Keifer stepped out to see the sparking robot parts. "There is only room for one speed king" Keifer said, grabbing Metal Sonic's head and throwing it off the side of the sector and into the Digital Sea.

"Keifer, the others need your help!" Jeremie warned him.

"Then let's do this Super style!" he yelled, focusing his thoughts as he channeled the power of the gems. In a flash of light, he was Super once more and he barreled through the air and towards the fight, where things weren't going well. Ulrich and Yumi were back-to-back in an Army of Bloks, William was desperately trying to defeat multiple Mega Tanks, and Aelita was flying Odd through the air with her wings so he could attempt to shoot down the various Kankerlots and Wasps. "I've got you!" he yelled, spin-dashing through the five Mega-Tanks like they were paper.

"Thanks!" William said to him before jumping a few Bloks, freeing Ulrich and Yumi.

"Aelita, get you and Odd super high, I have an idea!" Keifer yelled to her. She nodded down to him. "HYPER SPIN!" he yelled, doing his spin formation from before and making a golden twister that began sucking in the wasps and Kankerlots. "Now Aelita and Odd!" he yelled, gesturing for them to use their weapons. Aelita shot an Energy field at the still-going twister, causing pink flashes of electricity to illuminate it while Odd fired several Laser Arrows at the few enemies that weren't getting decimated by the sheer power of the tornado. Once it died down, none of the monsters were left and as Odd and Aelita landed, Ulrich, Yumi, and William and finished off the Bloks.

"Okay guys, Franz finished sending me the program!" Jeremie said ecstatically to them. "I'm bringing him, Aelita, and Keifer in first" he added as Keifer's Super form faded, returning him to his old self.

"I'm glad to be done here" Keifer sighed as he felt himself vanishing into a cloud of pixels before appearing in the real world once more as the other two scanners to his left and right opened to reveal Aelita and other than the man behind Lyoko himself, Franz Hopper.

It had been a relaxing day after that. Everyone decided that with Franz out of Lyoko, they would worry about Tyron and other things. But tonight, tonight they were going to celebrate.

"I'm so happy to have you back" Aelita said to him again for the millionth time as she hugged him. Franz lightly chuckled and hugged his daughter back as he sipped on a mug of hot tea. With the bad condition that the Hermitage was in, Keifer decided to turn the Mansion over to Franz, not having a purpose for it anymore, which the old man was thankful for.

"Let me tell you guys" he began jokingly as they were all eating Keifer's best Chili dogs yet, Franz on his sixth one as he hadn't eaten in years. "That Metal-head stood no chance against me"

"Yeah, especially when he slammed into that wall" Odd laughed, remembering how he had seen the end to the robot happen. "Hey Franz" the man looked over to him.

"Yes Odd?" he asked in reply.

"What was in the Dome?"

"How about we just forget about it" Ulrich spoke up. "I think Franz is stressed enough, and I honestly think we know more than we need to already"

"Agreed" Jeremie said, shocking everyone. "For now, let's just relax for once.

"Coming from you, Einstein?" William chuckled at his own joke, along with the others. For once, it definitely seemed like the Heroes had more victories than losses.


	7. Christmas Part 1 (CHAP7)

**A/N** ; 6 Chapters strong, and I'm glad I decided to re-write the story. I also want to point out a few things;

-I've changed the cannon slightly. (Evolution isn't cannon, but Tyron is, and he has a daughter. Jim's nephew, Chris, doesn't exist)

-The OC's Peter and Jade belong to LyokoWarrior1994

Without further ado, let's start the chapter!

Chapter 7; Christmas Part 1

A week had passed since everything had went down. And during that week, the group had been hard at work using their three week break to restore Keifer's mansion to a living point for Franz and for them to use. So far, the front yard had been cleaned and the fountain was flowing once more. The inside had also been fixed up. The only thing left was to plant some new rose bushes out front, but everyone decided to wait.

"We'll, we've finally done it" Keifer sighed, his voice filled with exhaustion as everyone sat down in the living room, the winter cold seeping up on them.

"And now it's snowing, thank god we finished before it started" Ulrich pointed out the window as he sipped on a Cherry soda. "And now, we can relax" he muttered.

"True dat" William said as he too was drinking a Cherry soda as Keifer begun flicking through channels until settling on the news.

"With storms being much worse this year than any other, it is recommended that you stock up for the winter" the reporter finished stating this before the broadcast changed to commercials.

"Well, you're all free to stay here for Christmas if you'd like" Keifer said to them. "That is, if you're cool with it Franz" Keifer said to him.

"Yes, of course. The more, the merrier" he said, looking up from his novel and smiling before sipping on the hot cocoa prepared by Aelita and Yumi.

"I'm down" William said, smiling. "Saves me the long trip back home.

"Same here" Odd said to Keifer. "Plus, I've already mailed my family their Christmas presents" he added.

"I think I'll stay too" Ulrich said. "My parents recently divorced, and honestly, I don't wanna get in the middle of it" he deadpanned. Realizing that he didn't want to be pressed for details, Jeremie quickly spoke up.

"I'll stay here as well. My parent went on vacation to Hawaii, and I am not one for hot places. I honestly much prefer the cold" he said to them.

"I'll stay too" Yumi said happily. "Me and Aelita are going to try some recipes for different Christmas cookies" she added to them, looking outside at the storm.

"Now that that is settled, I'm gonna run into town and get some Fire Wood and things for dinner. Anyone wanna come?" he asked them all.

"I'll go" William said to him. "It's been a while since I've been out of the house, seeing as me, Jeremie, and Mr. Hopper were working on the wiring"

"Alright then" Keifer said. "If we aren't back in an hour, call the police" he said jokingly as he and William bundled up and left the mansion, and out the snow-covered gate.

"Dang, this is worse than I thought" William said to him as they walked through the quiet town and towards the store.

"I know. The worst part is that I have to wear jeans" Keifer muttered. "And I hate it! I can't run that well with jeans" he complained.

"Look on the bright side, we're here" William said as they walked into the warm market, soothing their cold bodies.

"Okay, let's split up" Keifer said, handing him half of the list. "Make sure that you get 80/20 sausage specifically" he added as they both walked off in different directions. About twenty minutes later, they both met p again, each having two hand-baskets filled with various food items, along with some fire weed. They checked out and both headed out into the cold, except the storm was bad to the point they couldn't see anymore.

"Maybe I should go Super?" Keifer suggested, seeing as he couldn't see more than two feet in front of him.

"That's probably be smart" William said. Keifer nodded and closed his eyes, channeling the power of the emeralds. In a flash of light so hot that it melted the nearby snow and warmed William up instantly, he was Super.

"Alright, let's keep walking" Keifer said, floating next to him as the aura around him cleared the snow. Once they had managed to get back to the mansion, his form hadn't faded. "Maybe I can cancel it out or something" Keifer said thoughtfully, closing his eyes and thinking of his old self before his form faded.

"We're back!" William called out as they hung up their snow stuff and walked into the living room.

"Good thing that you brought fire-wood" Franz said as Keifer tossed a long in before lighting it, expelling the cold. "Now then, if you'd like me to, I'll cook dinner" he said to them. Keifer nodded and handed him the grocery sacks before sitting down with everyone else.

"Man, now the storm is REALLY picking up" Odd pointed out as Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer played on the T.V.

"Good thing I went Super" Keifer nudged William who nodded.

"Oh, what's that smell?" Aelita asked, sniffing the air as a wonderful smell of frying sausage came from the kitchen.

"Your dad's cooking dinner and from the smells of it, he's a really good Chef" William said as he patted his stomach, the lunch he ate seemed like it was years ago. They all sat there and got to around the middle of the movie when Fran called out to them.

"Dinner's ready!" he yelled, calling them all into the dining room. He had made sausage and vegetable kebabs with baked potatoes and Alfredo.

"This is so good!" Odd said, stuffing his his face full of Alfredo.

"And if you're hungry after that, I made plenty" Franz said to him happily as everyone dug in.

"So" Keifer begun speaking between bites of Baked potato. "I had no clue what to get you guys for Christmas so I just YOLO'ed and ordered your gifts through my phone during the movie" he said to them.

"I ordered everyone's a while back" Odd said. "I changed the address while we were in the living room to here, so they should be here tomorrow" he said as he bit into his fifth kebab.

"So did I" Jeremie said, sipping on his glass of water. "I also gave XANA a little something" he winked.

"Let me guess, a program that annoys him?" Ulrich asked jokingly. He was shocked when Jeremie responded.

"How did you guess?" Jeremie said with a laugh. "Essentially though, it slows his progress, hence, why there hasn't been an attack recently"

"That's great" Yumi said. "I also ordered everyone's gifts during the movie, and they should be here the same day Keifer's arrive" she explained to them as she finished her Kebabs and begun working on her Alfredo.

"Earlier today me and my dad ordered everyone's before we finished fixing the fountain" Aelita spoke up finally, having been enjoying the meal too much to speak.

"I already have everyone's" William said with a chuckle.

"So how 'bout we set the tree up after Dinner then?" Keifer asked them all, finishing his plate. "I have one with a bunch of lights and ornaments in the basement"

"Sounds good to me" Jeremie said, the others nodding in agreement.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this" Odd looked to Franz with a smile, rubbing his stomach. "That filled me up" everyone went silent, shocked to hear those words from him.

"Wow" Ulrich said. "Odd, what has gotten into you?" he joked.

"I'm serious, that's the best cooking I've had since I was back home!"

"Well I'm glad you're satisfied" Franz said to him, grabbing everyone's empty plates.

"I'm gonna need all of your guy's help getting the tree out of the basement - it's huge" Keifer said to them all.

"Alright" Aelita said as they walked back out to the Living room and towards the stairs. Keifer punched a code in on a hidden keypad and they could hear rusted gears grinding against each other as a panel on the floor opened to reveal a wide stair case going down into the dark basement. They walked down and he flicked the light on to reveal several stacks of boxes, and the tree lying on the floor. He wasn't kidding about huge. It clocked in at nearly 15 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Keifer got on the front tip, Yumi and Aelita towards the top behind him, William and Ulrich behind them, and Jeremie and William in the back.

"On my mark" Keifer said to them. "One two... THREE!" he yelled the last word as they all struggled to lift the tree and they slowly proceeded up and out of the basement. They decided to stand the tree up towards the corner of the house. Luckily, the stand it had from when Keifer's family had gotten it was still attached, making standing it up a breeze. Keifer dashed back down to get several boxes of lights and decorations before typing on the keypad and sealing the door up.

"Let's get to decorating" William said, and with the help of Franz, that is what they did for the next hour, ending with Keifer jumping up and putting the star on the tree.

"Now how about a round of hot cocoa?" he asked them all, feeling tired from the long day. Before anyone could respond, Jeremie's laptop began beeping the familiar danger beep from over on the coffee table.

"XANA is attacking the core of Lyoko!" he cried out as he realized something else. "And the first shield is already down by 10%!"

"I can't bring us all" Keifer said warily, going Super again. "Two at maximum"

"I'll go then" Aelita said. "Someone has to start the auto-virtualization program"

"And so will I" Odd said. Keifer nodded and closed his eyes, charging with power before surrounding Odd and Aelita in a golden aura, tethered to him.

"Let's do it!" Keifer said, zipping with them out of the house and into the horrid blizzard, which was unforgiving. They had made it to the factory, but Keifer had no idea how to stop the aura around his friends as his super form faded. "We're gonna crash!" he yelled, slipping on the ice-covered bridge towards the factory, his friends in tow.

"Let's keep going!" Odd said quickly as they went down the ropes and into the Elevator. They stopped by the lab so Aelita could start the virtualization process, then they headed into the scanners and into Lyoko's fifth sector.

"Jeremie still has control of the place, so there is no need for the key" Aelita said to them quickly as the trio headed to the elevator. As they went to jump, Keifer missed just by a few inches.

"No!" Odd and Aelita cried simultaneously. But before he could hit rock bottom, Keifer began running up the damaged wall the elevator was zooming up as they reached the exit.

"And you got us our vehicles!" Odd said happily as he jumped on to the over-board, a few Mantas preparing to hatch. Aelita turned her Wings on and Keifer hopped onto the over-board with Odd as they took off, the Mantas now having hatched and laying pursuit.

"I've got THIS!" Keifer yelled as he jumped on the Manta right behind him and Odd, doing a spin-dash right through it and landing on the one below it.

"Energy field!" Aelita cried, shooting down the Manta behind her.

"Keifer, jump!" Odd called as he fired a round of laser arrows at the last Manta, Keifer landing safely on the overboard as they went through the entrance to the core.

"There they are!" Aelita yelled, pointing at the small mass of Creepers firing at the core as the first shield went down.

"I'll take the highest ones, you guys get the rest!" Keifer said quickly, peeling out at the wall and running on it to the top before taking out two Creepers while avoiding getting hit.

"Odd, duck!" Aelita yelled, unleashing two energy fields at two Creepers behind him. He then turned and fired at the remaining two, clearing them all out.

"Thank god it's over" Keifer sighed, feeling even more tired. "But how are we getting back?"

"Devirtualize me Odd so i can bring you two back in" Aelita said. He nodded before firing a laser arrow at her, causing Keifer to wince slightly. Moments later, he and Odd faded into clouds of pixels themselves as they returned to the real world.

"Hey, you didn't face plant this time!" Odd said happily to Keifer, who just struggled out of his scanner, recalling how it happened several trips ago.

"Guess that makes two of us" he joked as they walked back to the elevator and took it up to the Lab, where Aelita was waiting.

"The storm died down, just a little bit, so I think we can go back without you going Super" she said to Keifer.

"Good" he sighed, as he and his friends, all three exhausted, returned home.


	8. Christmas Part 2 (CHAP8)

It was Christmas Eve and the group was gathered in the Dining Room, playing a game of Monopoly while eating Christmas cookies, sipping cocoa and watching random Christmas specials.

"At this rate, Franz is gonna make us all go bankrupt" Ulrich said, handing Franz some Monopoly money for landing on his properties, putting him dangerously low.

"It's all in the strategy Ulrich" he said with a smile, rolling the dice and getting a nine, landing himself on a red owned by Odd.

"That'll be $250!" Odd said with a smile, showing him the card as Franz handed over the money.

"C'mon, land me on free parking!" Keifer said, shaking the dice before rolling them. They had added an additional rule to the round; either last to go bankrupt or whoever could get $5,000 first. "YES!" he cheered, landing on free parking and scooping up the money from the center of the board, winning the game.

"Congrats" Jeremie said, finishing his hot cocoa before grabbing everyone's cards, playing pieces and money and boxing it all up before putting the game away. "I thought Franz was gonna win if I'm speaking honestly"

"Looks like we were both wrong" Aelita chuckled lightly, standing up and yawning. "How about we all go outside for a while?" she suggested.

"Sure, sounds like fun" Yumi said as they all, excluding Franz, who was putting the gifts under the tree for the following morning, got their snow clothes on and headed out into the cloudy evening.

"How about we do a snow-ball fight of girls versus boys?" William suggested.

"He may not be a girl, but we're taking Jeremie with us!" Yumi said as she and Aelita grabbed him and dragged him to the other side of the yard, past the frozen fountain.

"Alright, and begin!" Keifer yelled, quickly making a bunch of snow balls and chucking them at the girls and Jeremie, each one hitting.

"Hey, no fair!" Jeremie whined playfully, throwing one back at Keifer nailing him in the chest.

"I'll get you for that!" Ulrich called, throwing several balls in succession, only a few made contact, but the ones that did made a decent difference. They all continued to nail each other back and forth until a large, snow-man body-sized snow-ball smashed into Keifer, throwing him back a few feet. He saw the smug smiles on Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi's faces, which he returned by jumping up and running at them.

"Super Spin!" He yelled, doing his spin move, but slightly different. It picked up the snow and formed it into different sized throwing-balls before he unleashed them all, firing like crazy at both sides, hitting everyone, and somehow himself on the inside of the spin.

"Everyone, it's getting l- MFF!" Before Franz could finish his sentence, a small snowball flew into his mouth.

"Oh crap, sorry!" Keifer said quickly, stumbling to the ground as he stopped his Super Spin, covered in snow.

"I'm alright" Franz said spitting the snow out of his mouth as the snow-covered group walked up to him. "As I was saying, it's getting pretty late, so i do believe it's time to come in and sleep for the night"

"I couldn't agree more" William said, shivering from the cold as he and the others walked inside before peeling off their jackets and what-not. He and the guys, once more excluding Franz, walked up to the huge master bedroom, that had five beds set up, one for the each of them, while Yumi and Aelita walked to a different bedroom down the hall.

"So, what do you guys wanna do for a while?" Keifer asked them, having finished changing as he walked out of the bathroom.

"I dunno, anything good on T.V?" Odd asked as he sat in his bed, yawning. Kiwi barked at him playfully, reminding Odd of how Keifer had let him bring Kiwi over.

"I'll check" Jeremie said, grabbing the remote and flicking through the channels before settling on the cooking channel, which was airing Christmas-themed baking challenges.

"It's better than nothing" Ulrich said, attempting to stifle a yawn but failing to do so. Everyone laughed at his futile attempt but he just smiled as they all tucked in for the night, Jeremie cranking down the T.V's volume slightly before drifting into a soundless sleep. However, sleeping brought back what Keifer hated the most; Nightmares.

 _"Oh no, not this one!"_ he thought to himself in his dream, realizing that whenever he had this one, he'd tear up in his sleep. As the remaining sunlight filtered through the windows of the large laboratory, a door could be heard opening.

"Is it ready yet?" a young, excited voice asked a tall man in a lab coat, who smiled down at him.

"It sure is, sonny" he said with an old smile that brightened the boy's day. He gasped as the older man handed him a medium sized, golden glowing ring.

"Wow..." he whispered with pure joy, causing his Uncle to beam with a large smile.

"Me and my gold old friend Franz finally finished it for you" he said chuckling, his Gray mustache twitched slightly every time he spoke. "Happy Birthday Keifer" he said hugging his nephew.

"Thanks Uncle Chuck" he said with a big smile. But before the two could talk, the side of the lab smashed open, revealing a few men in black and another in the middle, but he wasn't wearing what the men in black were.

"Ivo!" Chuck said shocked, seeing the evil man walk towards him.

"Well well well, Charles Chuck" he said, with a hint of darkness in his voice. "I see that you and Franz finished the ring. But where is the old coot?"

"You won't find him here" Charles said to him angrily, standing his ground. "Keifer, you need to get out of here, NOW!" Keifer looked up tearfully at his Uncle before nodding, but not before running up to Ivo.

"One day Robutnik" he said angrily, a fire in his eyes, "You're gonna crash and burn"

"Oh I'm shaking in my boots" the evil man said, noticing the ring in Keifer's hands. "Give me that!" he said, lunging at Keifer, but missing as the boy easily side stepped.

"Use the ring, NOW!" Charles called to his nephew, charging the men in black as Ivo pulled something from his pocket. Keifer nodded and held up the ring, feeling a surge of power fill his body before zooming off and out past the men in black and into the stormy night, straight into the woods surrounding the hidden lab. A few minutes after running, Keifer gasped as he heard explosions behind him. He rushed back to find Ivo gone and the lab in smoldering ruins.

"Uncle Chuck!" he cried, running o the body oh his uncle, tears welling in his eyes. He cradled his now gone Uncle's head in his arms, tears streaming down his face. "No..." he begun crying louder as the storm picked up more, soaking him from head to toe in the clearing. "NO!" he cried.

"Keifer!" Odd yelled, shaking his friend awake, snapping him out of his nightmare as he bolted up. "Were you... crying?" he asked cautiously as the other gathered around, including the girls, who had heard the commotion from the other room.

"Oh geez..." Keifer lightly chuckled, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. "I'll be fine guys" he said, reassuring them as he hopped up out of his bed. "Now let's go celebrate Christmas" he said with a smile as they all ran out of the room and downstairs to see Franz reading a book.

"I wondered when you would all get up" he joked as they all begun grabbing their gifts out from under the tree, opening them up with happiness.

"Thanks Keifer" William said to him as he opened up his gift from him to reveal a new, top quality looking phone. It turned out that that is what Keifer got them all, including himself, while Jeremie had gotten them all a special set of wrist communicators. Everyone kept opening gifts until all that was left was one under the tree with no label, all it said was that it was for Keifer.

"Okay, whose idea was this?" Keifer joked before realizing the looks on everyone's faces. "Okay then..." he thought that something bad would happen as he opened the gift to reveal a small, circular box, which reluctantly, he opened. When he did, he almost gasped. In it where his Uncle's two prototype power bracelets. He almost teared up when he put them on, both of them being the size of his rings on Lyoko.

"Dang, those look slim" Odd commented as Keifer turned around to reveal them, not noticing the new surge of power flowing through him.

"Merry Christmas everyone" he said to them, smiling as they all did the same.


	9. Bloody Steel (CHAP9)

Chapter 9; Bloody Steel

A another week had past, marking the last day of Winter vacation for students at Kadic Academy, including the Lyoko Warriors. They wouldn't have minded, had it not been for XANA throwing attacks at them every day right after Christmas. The working theory was that Tyron had gained control of the Virus, and it was only a matter of time before XANA came back to his original strength once more.

"I don't know how many more times I can go Super" Keifer huffed as he, Odd, and William met up with the others after saving the Core once more. "I mean, I can do it forever, but it gets more tiring the more I do it in succession" he explained as they all left the factory and headed back to the Academy, the winter storms still not letting up.

"Hopefully we can find a way to terminate XANA once and for all before he comes back to his original strength, otherwise Tyron could power him up and do devastating things" Jeremie said to them as they headed up to his room to relax for a while.

"Maybe we could go take a relaxing walk in the woods outside of the grounds" Aelita suggested to them as they all lounged around Jeremie's room, trying to think of something to do.

"Yeah, maybe even visit the old Hermitage" Odd joked as they got up and headed out.

"Very fun" Aelita said as they left the school grounds and went towards the winding forest entrance.

"At least the snow isn't TOO bad today" Ulrich said. He was right. It was lightly snowing right now, but they were supposed to get pummeled by it later that evening. As they entered, they could here someone yelling for help.

"You guys stay, I'll go check it out!" Keifer said to them, zipping off ahead towards the sound. He then found a small clearing and saw Peter himself, sitting flat on the ground, his back against the small rock, shielding himself from... "Metal Sonic..." Keifer said, realizing that the robot was about to kill Peter for some reason.

"Someone, HELP!" he cried as the robotic version of the blue blur sped forward,m ready to deliver the final blow on the already hurt Peter. But before he could hit, a sickening slash could be heard. Peter opened his eyes to see Keifer before him, fists out in front of him and his eyes closed tight. He had taken the blow for Peter, but he had to ignore the pain. With pure adrenaline, he grabbed the large rock from behind Peter and smashed it at the robot as hard as he could, throwing it back a few feet. "You saved me...!" Peter said, shocked that he wasn't dead, but Keifer himself wasn't looking great.

"Run, to the others!" he said quickly as Metal gt back up, his metallic hands covered in Keifer's blood. If the robot could smile, it would have a devilish smile upon it's face at the sight of the slash on Keifer's back. Peter, not thinking twice, nodded and ran out of the clearing right before bumping into the other Lyoko Warriors.

"Peter?" Odd asked dumbfounded. They noticed how he looked beat up and he begun frantically explaining what had happened.

"There's no way! Keifer destroyed Metal Sonic!" Jeremie cried. But as if to prove it was true, Keifer went sailing right above them with such force, he smashed through nearly a half-dozen trees before collapsing on the ground. But he got right back up, his adrenaline keeping him going.

"YOU JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT, DO YA METAL?" he asked angrily, a fire in his eyes as he spin-dashed into the robot, only for Metal Sonic to kick him with such force it sent him flying almost two-hundred feet into the air. The robot flew up to Keifer, and kicked him back down to Earth, his impact creating a small crater.

"Oh god, Keifer!" Yumi cried out as the robot smashed back down next to him. She lunged herself at it, catching Metal off-guard and slamming him to the ground before letting out a flurry of punches, whilst the others either assisted her or ran over to Keifer, who was still going. His right eye was swollen shut and his spines were bent out of whack, and he was cut and bleeding in several places.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" he roared as a searing pain filled his body before he transformed into his dark form out of pure rage. He smashed over to Metal and begun beating the robot senseless. But that wasn't the worst part, after he had dented Metal all over, he got a manic look in his eyes and begun ripping the robot apart, limb by limb, almost causing the other Lyoko Warriors to feel bad for the robot, all whilst Peter looked on in horror. Keifer then begun speaking in a crazy way as he got closer to Metal's head. "DAMN. YOU. TO HELL!" he screamed, ripping the robot's head off and smashing it between his hands in a shower of sparks. He begun laughing evilly before his form faded, revealing that while his body had healed, Keifer was still wiped, not moving a single muscle.

"What did I just see...?" Peter asked them cautiously. Then it dawned on them; with Tyron controlling XANA, the return to the past program didn't work anymore, and now Peter had witnessed Keifer nearly die and a metallic robot get ripped to shreds.

"Peter, can you keep a secret?" Jeremie asked him as he watched William and Ulrich grab Keifer, each slinging one of the boy's arms over their shoulders.

"If it means I don't have to nearly die again by a robot, then yeah"

"Good answer" Aelita said to him. "Now let's get back to Keifer's mansion and tell my father what happened" Peter nodded as they all begun to trudge through the snow and out of the woods, which was no easy task. Then they made their way through the quiet city and up to Keifer's mansion. Odd punched the code and they got inside, the sight in front of them shocking them.

"Franz!" Jeremie cried out, seeing the unconsciousness body of the man bound and gagged, thrown in a corner.

"Well well well" an uncanny female voice spoke. The figure who the voice belonged to walked into view. "If it isn't the pests who keep destroying my father's perfect creation" she sneered at them. "Not that that matters, now that we have his blood" she pointed a finger to the body of Keifer, who was now coming around.

"You sick twisted..." Keifer didn't finish his sentence. He stood up and glared her down. "Who are you?" he asked angrily, getting into a fighting position.

"Jade Lowell" she spoke. "Daughter of Tyron Lowell" she laughed evilly on the last part, causing Keifer to rev up and get ready to charge at her. But before he could do anything, a loud crash could be heard as the Window next to the door was smashed through and now, at Jade's side was Metal Sonic.

"But how...!" Ulrich looked shocked, but then he realized that the blood stains were still on the robot.

"Those stones give his blood a special energy" Jade sneered. "That is the energy of Resurrection, allowing Metal Sonic to repair himself from any state!" she cackled. "Now what we came for" she said, looking to Metal, who grabbed Franz by the neck and held him, choking him. Everyone tried to rush forward, but Jade put her hand out in a stop gesture. "If any of you step forward, Metal will snap his neck" she smiled sinisterly.

"What do you want?" Keifer asked angrily, looking at his Metal clone.

"The Power Ring" she said, the room going dead silent except for the sound of Franz choking. Keifer wanted so badly to just deck Jade and kick Metal where the sun doesn't shine, but he realized it would never work. Admitting defeat for once in his life, he pulled out the ring and handed it to Jade. "Excellent!" she sneered, handing it to Metal, who powered up with it, but not before dropping Franz on the floor hard. "Well, good day to you all!" she said before hopping on Metal Sonic's back as they rushed off through the broken window.

"It's gone..." Keifer whispered, collapsing once more in sadness. "The last thing I have to remember my Uncle Chuck... and now because of me, we've lost!" he sobbed as he hung his head in his knees as Odd and Aelita set to undoing Franz's bonds.

"She snuck into the house somehow" he said once his gag was removed. "When she realized you all weren't here, she decided to wait" he said, breathing in rapidly before realizing how sad Keifer was. "I'm sorry you had to give up the ring" he said, trying to comfort Keifer. But his mind wasn't there anymore. Gone was the once, happy boy. Now there was nothing. His spirit had been broken beyond repair.


	10. Rising Darkness, Crushing Light (CHAP10)

Chapter 10; Rising Darkness, Crushing Light

For hours, everyone tried to cheer Keifer up, but to no avail. He had stopped crying, but he wouldn't talk to anyone or eat anything, not even the big meal Franz had prepared for them before they had to return to school the following day. Finally, as they all got up to return to Kadic, he seemed responsive, but only short answers or just nodding. As they were walking back, Jeremie's laptop begun beeping through his computer bag.

"Oh great, it's you-know-who" he said to them. Peter looked curious before everyone filled him in on the situation, and the problem they had been dealing with for ages.

"Sounds tough" he said as they ran for the factory, cutting straight through the woods on Kadic grounds.

"It's a living hell" Keifer deadpanned as they reached the bridge. While the others used the ropes as many times before, Keifer just jumped with a huff and they descended down into the room of the Super Computer. Jeremie ran towards the big machine and the others went down to the scanners.

"It's the core that they're attacking" he called down to them, virtualizing them all three at a time, sending Peter in last. Unlike the rest of them, Peter face-planted on the floor of Sector Five, groaning as he got up. His outfit was similar to Ulrich's but red, and he had a lightly flaming Katana.

"Not bad" he smirked at the blade before he followed the others through the sector and to the elevator before exiting the dome. Keifer realized that there wasn't room for him on the vehicles and decided to go Super so he could fly.

"I hate this now" he muttered, seeing the Mantas as they hatched. But there were nine now instead of the usual three. "You guys go ahead, I'll kill these idiots" he said before charging all of them at once. Before the others had even entered the Core's chamber, Keifer had destroyed the nine Mantas and had even caught up.

"Not bad" Odd commented with a smile as they jumped off their vehicles and hit the all but too familiar key, summoning the stairs to the top, which revealed to have nearly twenty Creepers and at least a dozen Manta's attacking it.

"Guys, you need to be quick, these monsters appear to be twice as strong due to the-"

"Power Ring" Kefier growled, smashing past everyone as he hurled himself in ball form at the hgihest up smallest group of Creeper's, killing them off quickly.

"Keifer, it isn't your fault!" William called out to him, using his Super Smoke to get on a Manta before stabbing it, turning it into a cloud of pixels.

"He's right, you had no choice!" Peter added, slashing out a beam of fire at his sword without knowing that went right through three Creepers. "I can do that?" he bewildered, but by stopping he took laser blast to the back, knocking him down.

"That took thirty life points Peter!" Jeremie warned him, seeing his card on the computer screen. Peter simply nodded in reply and went to launch a beam again, but it didn't work.

"Great" he muttered under his breath before jumping on the back of a Manta, all whilst Odd was running around and firing his arrows, along with Aelita launching a few energy fields.

"What're you doing Yumi?" Ulrich asked her as he realized she had her eyes closed, only to notice he was floating up to another group of Creepers. "Triplicate!" he yelled, making two clones of himself before they slashed away the monsters.

"Guys, the second shield can't take much more!" Jeremie warned them.

"Well it doesn't have to" Keifer replied, speeding around the core like a golden bullet, until a new shield surrounded it, pulsating yellow. But when he finished, Keifer's form faded, causing him to fall down to the floor all the way below, face first. He wasn't moving, but eery time the new shield was fired at, his body seemed to be in pain.

"Guys, Keifer's life energy is what's sustaining the shield! If it falls, he might completely die!"

"All the more reason for us to hurry up!" William yelled back to him, spinning around with his sword and finishing off the last few Creepers, while Odd killed off the last Manta.

"Great job guys!" Jeremie said to them, his tone now relaxed. "I'll bring you all back in now" he added, typing away at his computer as everyone was revirtualized into the real world. Peter, being his first return trip, just stumbled out as he and Keifer were the last ones brought in, but Keifer simply fell out in front of everyone, who failed to catch him. He just sighed as he came to and walked over to the elevator without saying a word. They went up a floor, got Jeremie, and returned to the surface.

"So how was Lyoko Peter?" Jeremie asked him as they entered the freezing night.

"Scary, but cool" he admitted. "And I promise to keep by lips sealed" he added to him. Jeremie nodded and looked to Keifer, but he was just staring at the ground. For a split second, he thought he saw Keifer's eyes glowing red, but he just brushed it off as tiredness. "Well, I think once we get to the dorms, I'm going to be for the night" he spoke, breaking the silence.

"I think that's what we're all gonna do" Yumi said as they reached the dorm wing back on Kadic grounds.

"See you guys tomorrow" Aelita said as she and Yumi ran ahead to go up to their room, leaving Odd, Ulrich, Peter, William, Keifer, and Jeremie.

"Well, g'night guys" Peter said to them, heading to his and William's room.

"See ya tomorrow" Odd said as he went to his room, Ulrich following him and William heading after Peter.

"I'll be heading up to the dorm" Jeremie said to Keifer cautiously. He got a nod in response before realizing Keifer ran ahead oh him and went straight to bed. He was asleep by the time Jeremie got to the dorm. Keifer thought that maybe for once, he wasn't going to have nightmares, but he was wrong.

 _"DAMN. YOU. TO HELL!" In Keifer's dream, he was ripping apart metal again, his body still glowing from his dark form. He kept ripping apart the robot but this time, he shattered it into pieces as it rebuilt itself from Keifer's blood. Keifer laughed demonically as the robot began pleading in a robotic voice for him to stop, but he wouldn' as his mind was drowned with darkness. His dream shifted to show him over Jade, wielding a sword._

 _"Please, stop! I'm_ s torry!" _she pleaded as Keifer laughed his dark laugh and stabbed down right into Jade's heart._

"NO!" Keifer snapped awake, sweat trickling down from his head. He then felt an agonizing pain flooding his mind as he collapsed to the floor on his knees. "Help... ME!" he cried out as the pain kept getting worse. He begun to feel his mind slipping from him being replaced with dark thoughts and pure evilness. He hadn't realized the dark aura around him until Jeremie begun calling out his name.

"Keifer!" he yelled, shocked at the scene before him. Keifer kept clutching his head in pain and fear as the aura grew darker and darker, his mind close to shattering.

"Help me..." he whispered out, his voice almost sounding like it didn't belong to him, but rather, something trying to take his body.

"Fight it Keifer, fight it!" Jeremie begun shaking him wildly. "What ever it is, fight it!" Keifer stared him in the eyes as he said this, then his mind flooded with memories from his childhood, all the good times he had with his Uncle, heck, even with Franz and Aelita on a few occasions. He felt his mind slowly returning, but then he heard a new voice screeching from the back of his head, nearly destroying his mind right then and there.

 _"You can NOT WIN!"_ it hissed darkly as it begun to spiral up. Keifer realized he was now in his mind, but he didn't like the looks of it. He was standing on a slightly elevated piece of broken road as the street below was flooded except for some destroyed cars and other pieces of road scattered near by. There were also buildings around him, all of them destroyed or barely standing. He then realized he was looking at a destroyed Kadic Academy and the town around it. _"You will cause all of this once I take your mind"_ the evil voice said. Keifer realized it had taken form at the center of the destruction, and it looked like a large water monster.

"What's happening?" Ulrich asked as he and Odd busted through the door and into the room, followed by William and Peter.

"I don't know!" Jeremie cried as the aura around Keifer stopped growing darker. "He woke up in pain and this aura, the one from his dark form starting appearing around him and now... he isn't responding!"

"Keifer, you've gotta beat it back!" William said to his friend, who he realized was shaking. They all gasped as a small golden aura begun flickering through the dark one.

 _"What ever you are, I'll beat you!"_ Keifer said to the large creature. He then heard his friends speaking.

"You can do it!" Odd said, clapping his back.

"What ever is messing with you, you can stop it!" Peter declared.

"No matter how strong the foe, you'll best them!" William called to his friend. Keifer, who was still in his mind, nodded to himself, feeling a new surge of unknown power from his friends, who were still rooting for him. He then realized what the monster was.

 _"You're going down, Chaos!"_ he yelled bravely as he felt the Emeralds swirl around him. They somehow seemed... bigger. Keifer smirked as he felt the power within them surge through hsi body, but yet, it felt stronger than before. He floated up as his form changed, but it wasn't his Super one. He was glowing white and a light gray.

 _"You can't hope to beat me!"_ the beast screeched. It lunged it's dark glowing water tentacles at him but Keifer intercepted with a spin-dash, cutting them in half, causing the top parts to fall in the water, but only to grow into bigger tentacles.

"Guys, look!" Odd exclaimed as more of the golden aura begun shining through the darkness swirling Keifer. "You can do it man!" he cheered him on, giving Keifer in his mind more strength.

 _"HYPER DASH!"_ Keifer roared, blasting forward towards Chaos, instantly covering half the distance between them as a tidal wave rose up and crashed down on him, taking him under as Chaos wrapped his tentacles around him tightly and begun squeezing him.

 _"Your hopeless"_ the beast said to him darkly. _"Give your mind to me... and I might spare your world this destruction"_

"Guys, the lights fading!" Jeremie cried as Aelita and a groggy Yumi walked in, having gotten an SOS from Ulrich. He filled them in quickly as Jeremie panicked while somehow, even in his new form, Keifer could feel himself drowning in the inky darkness.

"Keifer, you can do this!" Yumi assured him, along with Aelitia who then spoke,

"You can't give up, not now!" In his mind, Keifer begun feeling more renewed strength.

 _"I can't give up, not now!"_ he yelled as he broke free of the monsters grip and broke the surface of the water, flying back up and giving the death glare to Chaos, his aura returning to his body outside his mind, nearly breaking the darkness into nothing. _"CHAOS! You're done for!"_ he yelled, charging his energy up. Chaos tried to wrap his again, but to no avail. The beast watched in shock as Keifer's entire form was glowing white, his body begun surrounding itself in energy until he was a large orb.

"DO IT!" everyone outside of Keifer's mind yelled as the light begun finishing the dark aura.

 _"FINAL LIGHT... SONIC BOOM!"_ Keifer roared as his light form dashed forward and through Chaos, incinerating the evil being of darkness. He watched as what remained of the city begun fading from his vision before his eyes fluttered open to reveal his concerned friends.

"Yes!" he yelled, jumping up and pumping his fist in the air as he felt the darkness get expelled from his body, any trace of his dark form fading permanently, his mind and happiness being restored.


	11. Rescue Mission (CHAP11)

Chapter 11; Operation Rescue

That morning in the cafeteria, Keifer was telling his friends about what had happened in his mind the night prior.

"Had it not been for you guys, I might've died, or worse..." he let the sentence trail off, not daring to finish the thought as he ate his toast.

"Who would've thought those gems could cause something like that" Jeremie thought aloud as he finished his orange juice.

"It wasn't the gems themselves" Keifer said to him. "And also, we need a name for them, not just 'gems' or 'stones' anymore" he added to the group.

"You said the monster's name was Chaos, right?" Aelita asked him.

"Yeah, and it seems that using my dark form was what allowed him to escape the gems" he added.

"So how about Chaos Emeralds?" Odd suggested, finishing his fourth piece of toast. "You know, as a reminder not to go dark" he added, his teeth covered in bread crumbs.

"He's got a point" Yumi spoke up. "You almost lost your mind because of what the dark side of the Emeralds did to you"

"Alright then, Chaos Emeralds it is" Keifer concluded. "And I never intend to transform into my dark form anymore. I also think that Hyper Form in my mind was a one time thing thanks to all of you" he added.

"Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say we're glad you're back to your old self" William said with a smile as they got up to leave, but then something struck him odd. "Wait, how have you been going Super, Dark, and Hyper without your ring?"

"I was just thinking that myself" Keifer said in response to him, the searing memory of Jade and Metal getting away with his object of power still in his mind.

"I think the Chaos Emeralds use you yourself now, or it could be the fact that you've used them so much" Jeremie theorized.

"Then I want them separated from my body" Keifer said, much to the shock of the others. "I know they've saved us countless times, but I can't risk going Dark and losing my mind" he said to them all. "That's to say if they can even BE separated from my body at this point, and god knows where they actually are" he added with a slight shiver.

"I'll talk to Franz about it after class today" Jeremie said as they entered Science class. "But there is no guarantee that we can get them removed from your body" he added as they looked in shock at who was at the teacher's desk. Instead of Mrs. Hertz, it was Franz Hopper.

"Daddy, what are you doing here?" Aelita asked him as the gang sat in the front instead of the back for once.

"Simple; I got my old job back" he replied to her with a smile. "Your old teacher was more than happy to retire, so after a long conversation with Delmas, I got my old job back" he concluded.

"That's great, now science ought to be a lot easier" Odd said with a smile as he kicked back while Franz begun explaining to the class what they would be doing for the second half of the year.

"You should still pay attention though" Jeremie said to him as Franz begun writing on the Chalk Board.

"Okay, yeesh Einstein, I get the idea" Odd replied with a huff as for once, he begun taking notes. About an hour later, class ended and they went over to gym class, which proved to be a challenge.

"Before you complain about the weather today during your lap around the track, let me say this; I've been through worse" he said to the children, who were lined up in front of him and freezing from the morning snow-storm. "First up is Odd, Keifer and Ulrich. Show us what you got!" he yelled, blowing his whistle. Odd and Ulrich begun running, but Keifer just stood there and begun tapping his foot. He then looked at his wrist as if he had a watch when Ulrich and Odd had reached the first corner and begun running the half circle at the front of the track. "What are you doing? RUN!" Jim yelled at Keifer, who just smirked before charging a peel out, his sneakers making a big, fast moving figure eight where his feet should have been. Everyone in the crowd gasped except for Jeremie, Aelita, and Peter, who had grown accustomed to his speed. He took off in a blue blur, clearing his lap plus nine more in fifteen seconds flat, not even breaking a sweat as Jim just gaped at him.

"What was that about me needing to run?" Keifer asked Jim jokingly as Ulrich and Odd finished their lap, freezing and covered in snow.

"You know what, you're good for the rest of the week, so go get some cocoa and some rest" Jim said, his mind failing to process how one boy could run so fast. He thought to himself that it was because of his hairstyle, but he was horribly wrong. Keifer realizing that his friends might be a little jealous, decided to quickly act.

"Erm Jim, may I bring my friends with me? I sometimes became very light headed when I'm alone and I could pass out" he quickly lied.

"Oh alright, but only because of your skills!" he stated in his booming voice as Keifer, Ulrich, Odd, Peter, Jeremie, and Aelita all walked off.

"Thanks for the save" Jeremie chuckled as they went to the vending machines, the cold and snow biting at their bodies.

"Oh, no problem" Keifer said, getting them a round of hot cocoa. He then checked his watch and realized it would be lunch time soon. "You guys wanna go ahead and head to the cafeteria?" he asked them.

"Sure, why not" Peter said as they all headed in that direction, the storm getting seemingly worse. Once they entered though, the cold subsided from their bodies as they got in line to be greeted by a smiling Rosa.

"What'll it be today?" she asked them. "Thanks to the new budget, I've got a ton of variety" she said, pointing to a menu that was now on the counter.

"Oh this is so hard!" Odd whined, all of his favorite things listed on the menu. "I guess I'll take... Meatballs and Gravy" he said, making his choice.

"Hmm, same here" Ulrich said, sipping his cocoa.

"I'll take two doggies with the works, pal" Keifer said with a smile.

"Spahgetti sounds nice" Jeremie said.

"I agree with you" Aelita added.

"I think I'll take what Keifer's getting" Peter said. Rosa nodded and returned to the kitchen. They stood there for a bit and about three minutes later, Rosa returned with their food, placing it on their trays.

"Thanks!" Odd said happily after getting his. He ran to the table and begun digging in and was already halfway done by the time the others had gotten to him.

"Okay wow, did Rosa go to college and get a masters in cooking over Christmas?" Jeremie asked aloud, finishing his Pizza rather quickly when he noticed how good it was. "I mean, I know she got an increased budget again, but dang, she knows how to cook"

"I can't agree more" Keifer said with a smile, finishing his first Chili dog and grabbing the second.

"Hey guys" William said as he and Yumi came in and sat down with their meals as other kids begun flooding into the cafeteria. "How was Gym with Jim?" he joked, starting on his ramen noodles, which Yumi convinced him to try.

"It was rather good, actually" Keifer spoke, putting his chili dog down. "Jim got impressed with my running, so he decided to let me have the rest of class off, but I convinced him to let the others come with" he explained to them.

"Nice" Yumi said, finishing her meal along with the others, who were all getting up to leave before Jeremie got a call from Franz.

"Wait, really?" the blond seemed to be excited about something. "All right, I'l ltell the others and we'll be there ASAP!"

"What's going on?" Aelita asked him as they all took off out of the cafeteria and started heading in the direction of the factory.

"Your father managed to localize your mother on a replika made by Tyron!" he said excitedly as they kept running, the cold hitting them like daggers.

"Wait, really?" she asked him as they reached their hidden sewer entrance.

"Yep, and he also told me that the Skid has been upgraded to accommodate you all" he added as they descended into the sewer. They all hopped on to their methods of transport, except for Keifer, who ran on the sewer water without a worry.

"Then let's hurry!" Aelita exclaimed as they reached the exit and hoped out onto the bridge to the factory, the storm picking up even more. They ran into the factory, but that's when trouble struck. There had been some ice near the ropes that none of them had noticed. Odd, unfortunately being up front now, had slipped and started falling to the ground.

"ODD!" everyone cried out as he fell, but was suddenly caught by Keifer, who had literally ran down and managed to catch him last second.

"You okay?" he asked his friend as they all went to the elevator.

"Never been better" he said sarcastically as they went down to the lab to meet with Franz.

"Am I glad that you're here" he said to them. "Listen, I'll be sending you all in to Sector 5 and from there, I'll energize you all into the Skid 2.0" he said to them.

"Good luck guys!" Jeremie said to them as he waved while the elevator descended another floor. Odd, William and Ulrich went first, followed by Yumi Aelita and Peter, then Keifer last. But right as he entered his scanner and the process started, the computer begun flashing a warning symbol.

"This isn't good!" Franz warned as Keifer was sent through. As he landed, he realized that he wasn't in Sector 5.

"Umm, guys, where am I?" he asked very nervously, taking in his surroundings. He appeared to be in a large, gray room, with several platforms moving around, rising from the ground and moving in and out of the walls.

"I wish we could answer that question" Jeremie said to him, connecting his own laptop to the Super Computer. "Guys, Keifer was sent to a weird place somewhere on the network I think. Just head to the Skid and don't worry" he informed his friends, who nodded and took off, while Keifer begun walking around the room.

 _"Why does this feel so... familiar?"_ he wondered to himself as he got to the middle of the room. Before he could go further, a large, red transparent sphere rose up out of the floor and immobilized him. "AAAAGH!" he roared in pain as red electricity begun circling through his body before he was slammed o the ground. He looked up and realized that the Chaos Emeralds were floating around a familiar figure. "Jade...!" he said, coming to realization as he jumped up and stared at the girl who had taken the Power Ring from him.

"So many things this little thing can do!" she said evilly, flashing the Power Ring at him. "My father was right, you shouldn't have had this, ever!"

"Look" Keifer said, getting out of his fighting stance. "I don't wanna hit a girl, I've got enough respect to not do that. So if you could just hand me the rin- OOF!" Keifer was thrown back a few feet as Metal Sonic punched him dead in the chest, all the while his friend were now back in the Network and heading for the Replika that would get them t Aelita's mother.

"Keifer, you need to be careful!" Franz warned him as Jeremie was giving the others coordinates. Franz was watching a visual on his screen of what was happening in the Alternating room.

"I should've known you'd come back" Keifer said, standing up, but wincing from the pain of the punch.

"Metal, I think it's time!" Jade called to the robot. She tossed him the Power Ring and the Chaos Emeralds begun swirling around him. Keifer ignored the robot and went right for Jade, who simply dissapeared. "Bye bye for now!" he could hear her say, Metal still transforming behind him. "I'd love to stay and watch you get ripped to bloody pieces, but I have to stop your friends! So have fun dealing with Metal!" she said in a dark, evil voice. Keifer turned around to see that Metal had finished transforming. (Cue Rival Battle; Metal Sonic theme from Sonic Generations)

 _"LET'S SEE WHO THE REAL SPEED KING IS"_ the robot said in a deep, metallic voice. His form was slightly taller now, and his robotic parts were more reinforced. His claws were also bigger.

"Finally, a real challenge!" Keifer said sarcastically as he collided with Super Metal Sonic, who was glowing gray, while the others entered the Ice Sector Replika.

"Okay guys, get hooked up to the Tower. I'll send Aelita, Peter, and Yumi in, while Ulrich, Odd, and William guard the Skid" he said to them.

"I can only hope this all ends well" Franz muttered as he saw the battle between the Invincible Robot and Keifer ensue.

"Take... THIS!" Keifer yelled, passing the robot and kicking him from behind down into the ground.

 _"IMPRESSIVE"_ Metal Sonic said, slightly annoyed as he got up. _"BUT CAN YOU HANDLE THIS?"_ he raised both of his hands into the air and the room begun falling apart and falling into the digital sea below. Keifer took off ahead as he realized that the falling ground was being turned into curving pathways almost like a speedway ahead. While he begun charging ahead of Metal Sonic, his friends weren't doing so well.

"Is that..."

"Jade?" Ulrich finished Odd's sentence as Jade appeared before them in what appeared to be a ninja suit, dyed in dark greens and grays. She charged at them and the two of them, Including William begun to fight as the others were energized back on Earth outside of a large laboratory in the middle of what appeared to be nowhere.

"Inside there, Athena is being held" Franz told them, getting a visual from his daughter. "You'll need to find a way in without triggering Tyron's alarms" he explained to them.

"He's gonna get it for kidnapping my mom!" Aelita said angrily as they found a vent-shaft. Peter sliced it open with his fire katana and they proceeded to enter it.

"First we find your mm" Yumi said to her. "Then, if we run into him, we'll deal with Tyron"

"You're too slow!" Keifer yelled jeeringly at Metal Sonic as he was racing around on the constantly changing pathway.

 _"ENOUGH!"_ the robot screeched as it charged itself in a ball of red electricity before charging at Keifer, who barely jumped over it as the robot begun sparking slightly from using so much power. Keifer took it as his chance and jumped hard on the robot, causing it to crash to the ground and fall off the platform before flying up again.

"You can't hope to beat me!" Jade sneered at the boys as she managed to avoid all three of them attacking them. "I'm better than you in every way!"

"Jeremie, I need more Arrows soon!" Odd warned him.

"On it!" the blond said as Aelita and her small group begun to hear voices in a vent opening ahead of them. They listened closer as they heard voices coming from the room below.

"- They'll save us, I'm sure of it" an old, male voice said as he paced around what appeared to be a locked room. "We can count on my nephew"

"I hope you're right" a voice familiar to Aelita spoke. She peered through to see her mom speaking to a man slightly shorter than her who appeared to be somewhere in his late fifties, maybe even early sixties. He had dark brown hair and had a small gray mustache along with a pair of glasses nestled on his nose. Before the group could make themselves known, the door to the room opened, revealing none other than Tyron himself.

"That's it. They've gone too far, and I won't let them win!" he barked, pulling out something that looked exactly like the weapon Ivo had and the one Keifer had described to them. "So I'm gonna end this game now" he said, priming the gun as Aelita and the man shielded themselves.

"NOT TODAY!" Peter cried, jumping out of the vent exit and into the room. He tackled down Tyron as Aelita and Yumi hopped into the room much to the surprise of Athena ad the man.

"Mommy!" Aelita cried as she ran and hugged her mother, who smiled and embraced her with her loving arms. But their moment was broke when they heard Tyron screaming in agony. Peter was atop him and holding the cell splitter while kicking the evil man in the stomach. He stopped abruptly only to point the weapon at his face.

"No one. Messes, With. My. FRIENDS!" he yelled, hitting him in the face with the weapon, knocking him out. He threw the weapon on the floor and crushed it with his feet before looking at the others.

"Let's just get out of here!" Yumi said quickly as she decided she'd rather not question Peter about what he had done.

"I'm going to bring you directly back, starting with Athena and..." Franz's voice faltered as he recognized the man who was in there with them. "Chuck Charles?"

 _"YOU CAN NOT HOPE TO BEAT ME!"_ Metal screeched as he formed another shield of electricity, but Keifer ignored him. He had to end the fight somehow, and he looked down to see how somehow, the Digital Sea below seemed to be showing the Ice Sector. A plan formed in his mind as he sidestepped Metal.

"It's now or never!" he yelled tackling the robot and hanging on as he threw them off the side of the breaking floor and through the fake Digital Sea. They both landed on the Ice Sector replika as the boys kept trying to subdue Jade, but they were failing and were pushed closer to the edge of the Sector. Keifer landed before Metal, having let go of him while they were falling into the Sector. He took this as his chance and jumped up with all of hi power before kicking the robot dead in the center piece, the force being so hard it knocked the Power Ring out of his body. Keifer caught it and he felt a familiar surge of strength as he spin dashed into the robot, knocking the Chaos Emeralds out of him.

"NO!" Jade cried out, realizing that Metal Sonic was done for. William took this as his chance and sliced her in the back, but it didn't seem to affect Jade as she spun around and charged at them.

"Franz Hopper?" Chuck said unbelieving at his old friends voice. He didn't have time to react though, as he, Athena, and Aelita dissapeared before appearing in the Scanners back in the factory, followed by Peter and Yumi.

"It's time you all DIE!" Jade screamed with a surge of dark, XANA-fied energy as she blasted Ulrich and Odd, causing them to fall off the Sector.

"NO!" William cried out as the two of them begun falling. Keifer ran up, completely ignoring Jade, who was laughing evilly. He was powerless as the Power Ring was drained. Out of anger, he turned around and with a rush of adrenaline, he threw Jade off the Sector, who was immediately devirtualized. He watched in horror as Odd and Ulrich were literally inches away from falling into the Digital Sea, when suddenly a dark blue blur caught them both and begun flying up.

"Unbelievable!" Jeremie gasped at the sight in his Visual. Metal Sonic, who was broken in some places, was lifting Odd and Ulrich up. They were both equally surprised as the three of them landed safely on the Sector.

 _"DELETING TERMINATION MODE"_ the Robot said, his voice sounding some-what human as the group stared at it. _"NORMAL MODE RESTORED. NEW FUNCTION; WORK WITH HALF-HUMAN, HALF SPEED KING KEIFER"_

"Well, I'll be darned" Keifer said, walking up to the damaged robot, who was slowly repairing itself.

"Great job everyone" Franz said to them through his mic as he heard the elevator start up. "I've set the Skid to pilot itself back to Lyoko, so I'll bring you all back in" he said as he typed in the re-materialization code, bringing in Odd, Ulrich and William first, followed by Keifer and a fully repaired Metal Sonic.

"Looks like the elevator is gone" William said, pointing to the empty space ahead of them.

"SECOND PATHWAY FOUND" Metal Sonic said, whirring as he pointed to the ladder.

"Thanks" Ulrich said to the robot. Everyone already knew it was there, but he didn't want the robot to boot back into Kill mode. Heck, it still surprised him that the robot was being nice at all. As they ascended the ladder, they found Aelita, Franz and Athena all locked in a group hug as Yumi, Jeremie and Peter looked on, confirming that their mission had been successful, when a familiar voice that only Keifer knew spoke.

"Keifer...?" the boy turned to see in the flesh, his Uncle, standing there with his arms outstretched. Keifer's eyes welled up as he hugged his Uncle so tightly to the point of knocking the breath out of him.

"You're alive!" Keifer cried tears of joy into his shoulder, not letting go of his Uncle, afraid of losing him. "But... how?" he asked, finally letting go so his Uncle could breath.

"Ivo had made a decoy of me somehow and kidnapped me rather than killed me" he explained to his nephew. "But man, is it good to be back!" he said, stretching as all the small reunions died down, everyone not knowing what to do.

"So... what should we do now?" Peter asked finally, breaking the silence.

"MY SENSES INDICATE THAT YOU WOULD ALL ENJOY GETTING TOGETHER AND PARTYING" Metal suggested to them, much to almost everyone's shock who hadn't had the revelation that he was on their side now. But he was right; everyone wanted to kick back and celebrate their biggest victory yet.


	12. Ivo Returns (CHAP12)

Chapter 12; Ivo Returns

The rest of the school year dragged on for what seemed to be eternity until finally, the last day of the school year came to a close.

"So long Ninth grade!" Odd chuckled as he and all of his friends begun heading for Keifer's mansion, where they had all planned to stay for the summer.

"Just you wait" William begun as they got off Kadic grounds and headed into the city. "Tenth grade was the equivalent of hell being frozen over"

"LANGUAGE!" Yumi said angrily, slapping him across the face. He apologized and everyone laughed, even William himself couldn't suppress a chuckle. "But he's right; Tenth grade is horrible"

"Well, we've got nearly a full month of relaxing before we've gotta worry about it" Keifer said with a smile.

"Unless XANA bears his ugly head, or for that matter, Tyron" Jeremie said, reminding them of their enemy.

"The only way we can stop XANA now is to stop Tyron and Jade as well" Aelita sighed as they got to the mansion to be greeted by her mother.

"Good afternoon everyone" Athena said with a smile as she brought them a tray of various snacks. She hugged Aelita before returning to the kitchen.

"Look at it like this though, we have two speed demons on our side" Ulrich joked as he grabbed a handful of chips from the tray. As if on cue from hearing their voices, Metal stepped into the room. His voice didn't boom anymore as Keifer's uncle and Franz had built a voice synthesizer at the request of the robot himself.

"Your uncle says the surprise is finished" Metal Sonic said to him. "He says bring your friends" he added. Keifer nodded and they followed Metal to the basement, which had been turned into a lab of sorts filled with technology and a large table covered with things in the center.

"Hey sonny boy, I thought you wouldn't get here in time" his Uncle said to him with his hearty chuckle. "I want you and your friends to head up to the fountain out back" he said to him.

"And we just got here" Odd whined as they went back up stairs and out the back door to the large yard, which now was a blooming flower garden with a large, fully restored marble fountain in the center. "What's tak-" Odd didn't finish his sentence as the fountain begun glowing brightly, and a golden ring, the size of Keifer's bursted out into the air with a splash, and he jumped up and caught it.

"Whoa, no way!" Keifer said, holding it up as Franz and Chuck walked outside, each with a smile.

"We decided to take the power ring and restore it to it's original form" Franz begun explaining to them.

"The Power Stone" Chuck begun, continuing from what Franz said. "Is what the Power Ring was. But now, we've changed it slightly"

"How so?" Keifer asked him, seeing no difference in the ring.

"Every twenty-four hours, the Power stone makes a new ring. These ones aren't like yours and sue a lot less energy, causing them to fade out after about five minutes of use" Franz explained to him.

"But that's not all" Chuck said, sounding very giddy. "Any of you youngsters can use the new Power Rings!"

"Wait a minute, WHAT?" Odd asked, bewildered by this revelation. He then grabbed the ring from Keifer and held it up. "How does it - WHOA!" he begun feeling a surge of power in his body as a gold infinity symbol streaked with purple flashed around him before fading.

"It has a different effect on everyone" Franz spoke. "But it should be the same for Keifer, nonetheless"

"Hey Odd, hit me with your hardest and best shot" Keifer said to him, standing next to the fountain, wide open. Odd nodded, and surged forward like a XANA-fied person would. He balled his fist and hit Keifer with a punch so hard, that the force alone blew him back into a large tree, his back smacking it hard before he fell to the ground.

"Oh god!" he cried out. He surged forward to see his friend, who was struggling to get up.

"I'll be fine" Keifer reassured him as he stood up. "At least we know what Odd's powers are like now" he joked as the ring poofed into a small shower of gold, the power within it being depleted.

"Perhaps it has to do with the time I activated that tower so he could fight Yolanda" Jeremie theorized. "That would explain why that power seemed so similar"

"Well needless to say, XANA better watch out now, because we're gonna bite back twice as hard" Peter said, making a fist in triumph as they walked back inside, Keifer still slightly dazed.

"Speaking of which, we believe that Tyron is charging power to do something" Franz said to the children as they all sat down in the living room. "After dinner tonight, I'll be sending you all into the Replika so we can find out what he's up to"

"Sounds fine to me" Keifer said, booting on a game console and passing a controller to his friends before they played a free-for-all fighting game. "After all, we'll have Metal Sonic on our side!"

"I can't return to the digital world" the Robot spoke to him, his voice sounding firm.

"Why not?" Yumi asked the robot with slight concern as Ulrich knocked her off the map, causing her to lose a life.

"If Tyron were to run his kill-switch program with me there, it would restore my kill function" the robot informed. "I have no wish to bestow harm on any of you no more" he concluded.

"Can you still come to the factory though?" Jeremie asked him.

"Yes, I can do that, in case Tyron sends XANA our way. I will be able to protect Franz" he stated, cocking his head a little. He then returned to the kitchen to help Athena as Odd destroyed them in the video game they were playing, winning instantly.

"Ha!" he said, fist pumping. "I knew I hadn't lost my touch!"

"Bet we could beat you in another game" Peter said as they were about to start another round.

"Dinner!" Athena called out. Dumbfoundedly, Keifer looked at his watch along with the others as they realized how much time had actually past. So, they shut the game off and went in to the dining room as Metal Sonic brought out their plates and sat them on the table. It was a combine of steak and potatoes, along with a few sides.

"It smells wonderful dear" Franz said to Athena as she joined them. "And tastes amazing!" he added, taking a large bite and savoring the flavor. Just then, there was a loud banging at the door.

"I'll get it" Keifer said. "And just as a precaution, I'll bring Metal Sonic with me" he looked over to the robot that was oiling itself, and somehow drinking some of it. Metal put the oil canister down and followed him. As they reached the door, there was still loud banging, and when they opened it, there were three men in black. "Metal, enter Defense mode, NOW!" Keifer cried, tackling one of them down,

 _"DEFENSE MODE; ACTIVATED"_ Metal droned before slamming into the other two as Chuck walked into the hallway.

"What in blazes - Oh not again!" he quickly pulled something from his pocket and pressed a button on it as a white beam of light was fired at the three grounded men. The machine broke in his hands and he sighed a little.

"Wait - where are we?" one of them asked. Then, out of no where, Keifer tossed on a hat that was on the rack and a large trench coat. He then begun speaking fluent English.

 **"Hello, are you here for the party?"** this baffled them and then they made gestures apologizing before leaving. Keifer sighed and put the clothing up before everyone returned to the table.

"Tyron isn't going to be too pleased" Odd said as Keifer told them about what happened as dinner resumed. Metal still seemed on edge, but calmed down instantly when he downed half a canister of motor oil. "But what was that hing?" he asked Chuck, who was eating in silence.

"A memory wiper" he said plainly. "The only one I ever built. It wouldn't have broke had it not been for the power crystal breaking from being so old" he explained this to them as they all finished up their meal.

"What's a Power Crystal?" Aelita asked him as her mother and Metal Sonic cleared everyone's plates.

"A Power Crystal is a very small piece of the Power Stone, which, when used right, can power very deadly weapons or objects like this. Luckily, there is only one weapon in existence that has a Power Crystal in it" he said, his mood going dark. "That weapon, being the one that nearly killed me"

"The Cell Splitter..." Keifer whispered, putting a hand over his mouth.

"Me and Charles created it to test the Power Crystals, and it had three settings being kill, teleport, and memory wipe" he explained to them. "But, however, when teleport it used, it can make a fake of another person lasting twenty-four hours, and if a person has a strong mind, kill mode can't work" Franz explained to them. "But Tyron stole it from us" he added darkly.

"It's a good thing you've got that big head of yours" Ulrich joked to Odd, and everyone including him laughed at that.

"We all ready to go?" Franz asked them.

"You bet" Jeremie said. "I can hook up to the Super Computer and in no time flat, I'm sure we'll be able to find what XANA is up to" he said with a smile. "Along with Tyron" he added.

"Stay safe!" Athena called as they opened the door.

"And good luck!" Chuck said to them as Metal closed the door behind them all.

"There is a sewer entrance that we can use up ahead to get to the factory" Franz said to them as hey walked in the starry night sky, the cool summer air wafting around them.

"Is this it?" Aelita asked her father after they had been walking for a while. And sure enough, with a nod, Franz confirmed that it was. One by one, they all climbed down, except for Keifer, who just jumped and Metal, who flew down.

"Man, I can't see a thing!" Peter said as they closed the entrance. As if on cue, Metal's eyes lit up very brightly revealing a path behind them and in front of them.

"If I'm remembering right, we just need to go right on the third entrance and make a left on the fourth, and we'll be there" Franz old them as they begun walking.

"So Metal, what exactly caused you to revert to normal mode?" Keifer asked the robot, who was in front of everyone.

"When you beat me and the Power Ring and Chaos Emeralds left my body, my will was free" he explained to him. "When I was first created, Tyron used a small piece of the Cell Splitter's Power Crystal, which he had corrupted somehow, and put it in my body. The sudden loss of my power somehow fixed the shard, and restored me to my normal state" he concluded. "And along with your blood infused with the energy of the Chaos Emeralds, it sustains me and can fix me from even the worst destruction"

"So am I invincible too?" Keifer asked him as they made their right turn.

"I don't think it works that way" Aelita spoke up. "Metal Sonic is made of steel and titanium. He doesn't have any physical matter like we do, hence, why he can be rebuilt"

"And it probably has to do with the Power Shard" Yumi added.

"Makes sense" Keifer said. "I'm just glad you're on our side now Metal Sonic" Keifer said with a smile as they made their left turn, and the familiar ladder to the bridge was in sight.

"So am I" the robot said as they reached their destination and begun climbing. "Before you stopped me, I could see everything I was doing, but because my will was locked up, I couldn't control myself" he said as hey all ascended the ladder and found themselves on the bridge to the factory. They all ran in, and everyone jumped on the ropes, except for Keifer, Metal, and Franz. Keifer jumped down while Metal flew Franz down.

"Alright, so me, Metal, and Jeremie will stay here to guide you and run our scans. We'll send you to the Fifth Sector and from there you can board the Skid and get to Tyron's Replika" Franz said to them as he. Metal, and Jeremie stepped out of the elevator and watched it descend down a few more levels.

 **-Keifer's** P.O.V **\- First Person (A/N; We're gonna start looking at the story from other points of view now)**

Every time we went down the elevator to the scanners, I always felt prepared. Even if we didn't know what we'd be up against, I still felt we'd always emerge victorious, no matter what. Then, the elevator opened and the rest of us guys watched as they went first, William and Ulrich second, then me, Peter, and Odd went third.

"Boy am I glad we don't have to use the transport orb anymore!" Odd said happily as we landed on Sector Five, the doorway ahead of us opening.

"Go on now, you're safe to head to the Skid" Franz told us as we all took off. Every time we ran, I had to remind myself to slow down because not everyone could run as fast as me, and to top that, the few times I could run fast were only bad times.

"Wanna race?" Ulrich asked me as we got to the elevator and went down, a few more corridors to go before we got to the docking station of the Skid.

"You're on!" I yell to him as we take off. I had never noticed how fast Ulrich's Super Sprint was, so I smiled as I let him over-take me for a second, only to peel out ahead of him moments later with a smirk.

 **-Third person P.O.V**

As everyone caught up to Ulrich and Keifer, they were already on their spots, waiting to be energized into the Skid. The Skid itself now had six mini-pods and the main pod at the top, operated by Aelita.

"Took you long enough" Both Keifer and Ulrich said in unison. The others just rolled their eyes jokingly as they got on their spots and Franz sent them all into the Skidbladnir.

"Guys, there's an activated Tower on the Replika, so when you get there, connect to the one closest to it. We'll send in Keifer, Peter, William and Odd, while the rest of you get the tower" Jeremie said to them as the group entered the Digital Sea.

"So how does all of this work exactly?" Keifer asked, seeing all of the different buttons in his pod.

"Don't worry, I'll explain it to you if things go downhill" Franz said to him as the Skid approached the Replika. The group entered and they saw the activated tower. But not from it was a deactivated one.

"We're hooking up to the tower Jeremie" Aelita said as they did just that. A few moments later, Keifer found himself standing in the real world again alongside William, Odd and Peter, and they weren't far from Tyron's lab.

"I think you might need to find another way in - Tyron is probably expecting you to use the vents" Franz told them as they neared the lab. And sure enough, the vent was sealed with steel.

"Maybe if we just snuck in from a Window?" William suggested as they did a lap around the large, hidden building. And sue enough, they found an open window that led into a deserted Kitchen.

"Alright, try and get to Tyron's Super Computer" Franz told them. "From there, I can instruct you on some code you can send me so we can find out what he's up to"

"Yumi, watch out!" Ulrich called to her as he jumped over her and slashed through a Blok, destroying it with one hit. A few more walked up as they got closer to the tower. Aelita hit one with an energy field and Yumi threw her fans as Metal begun speaking.

 _"SPECTER DETECTED. ENTERING; DEFENSE MODE!"_ Metal Sonic droned as one of XANA's specters took the form of a man in black. Before it could fire it's purple electricity at Jeremie and Franz, Metal Sonic lunged at it, throwing it at the wall far from the Super Computer.

"Hurry with the tower!" Franz warned as heard the fight behind him. "I'm not sure how much longer Metal Sonic can hold the Specter back!"

"Don't worry, Aelita just got in there now!" Ulrich said as Jade begun virtualizing in front of them.

"Miss me?" she asked them darkly, summoning her weapon before lunging at them.

"Defense Mode disabled" Metal Sonic said as the specter faded.

"Franz, we made it to Tyron's Super Computer" Keifer said through his ear-piece as the warriors walked into the room.

"Alright, get to the keyboard and I'll tell you what to do" he said as he watched a visual of Keifer and his friends while Yumi, Aelita, and Ulrich were all fighting Jade, who was,needless to say, beating them back hard.

"HEYAH!" Ulrich yelled as he sprinted behind Jade and impaled her with his sword. She gasped as she was devirtualized in a cloud of red pixels. Keifer's group gasped as a large, grey metallic pad in the center of the room begun lighting up.

"Hide!" Franz grimaced as the light begun to die down, revealing a slightly exhausted Jade. Keifer and his friends all hid under the desk as they watched Jade leave the room, looking like she was in a hurry.

"I'll follow her, you guys get the data for Franz!" Keifer said, running off after her, only to be jumped right outside the door.

"Gotcha!" she said evilly, stabbing him in the side with something. Keifer howled in pain as he clutched his side, a fire-like agony spreading through his body. "Catch me if you can!" Jade laughed evilly. Keifer yelled with anger and tried to run after her, feeling himself going much slower than normal. He then realized the pain was still in his body and thought that it was affecting his speed. Wih a scream, he pulled the weird needle-like object out and stopped at an open door to a large room, almost the size of three classrooms. There were several scientists at work on many high-tech computers and at the center of the room was...

"Jade!" Keifer yelled in anger. "But more importantly, Tyron!"

"Such a shame you expelled Ivo from our world" Tyron said to him with an evil grin. "But no longer!" he yelled as he slammed a red button on a panel in front of him. A blinding light hit the room before fading. And in the center of the room, stood Ivo Kintobor, Keifer's arch nemesis.

"Oh it feels so good to be back!" Ivo laughed evilly, walking over to Tyron before seeing Keifer. "Oh oh oh, I've got a surprise for you!" from behind him, a person slightly taller than Keifer stepped out, almost shocking him. He had jet black hair and like Keifer, quills and spines, but his were black and some had shades of red.

"Sorry, but I don't have time to deal with impostors!" Keifer said. He closed his eyes and felt the Power bracelets charge him up. Before he could take off, the impostor zoomed forward and drop kicked him. He then ripped the Power bracelets off of Keifer's wrists and put them on his own.

"I thought this would be harder" he said as he looked at Keifer, who was struggling to get up. He then pulled a wicked looking pistol out. "Sweet dreams" he said, shooting him right between the eyes, causing him to de-energize and reappear in the Skid, completely past out.

"Okay, we're sending it over right now!" William said to Franz, hitting enter on the keyboard of the Super Computer as the impostor walked in. "What did you do to yourself Keifer?" Odd asked, believing it was their friend.

"Don't call me that faker!" he said, shooting Odd as William and Peter watched in shock as Odd crumpled to the floor as he was de-energizing. Peter was shocked next and William manged to speak, but his voice was quivering, knowing that he was next.

"Who ARE you?" he asked as the other boy walked up to him.

"Zach, Zach Kintobor" he said, firing his gun. As William de-energized, Zach looked at Tyron's computer and had a dark thought. He begun kicking it and bashing it in.

"Guys, get out of there, the Replika is falling apart!" Jeremie warned them as everyone was finally back in the skid, even if half of them were unconscious.

"Don't worry, we're leaving" Aelita reassured him as they dropped into the Digital Sea and out of the Replika as it exploded completely, not a trace of it left.

"So... that's what getting shot feels like" Keifer muttered, coming to as the gang re-entered Sector Five and dismounted from the Skid, all of them being virtualized one-by-one. He was trying to ignore the fact that Ivo was back and with... whoever that was, but was hit by the reality of it when Franz told them that is what Tyron had been doing this whole time.

"That's not good" Yumi said as they were all walking back to the mansion. "If he's back, then he'll be hunting down Keifer again"

"Then we've gotta beat him, XANA, Tyron, and Jade once and for all" Keifer said, a new determination flaring in his eyes. Everyone silently agreed with him. After all, they couldn't keep on winning forever.


	13. On the Cusp of Understanding (CHAP13)

**A/N; So I feel like the perspective thing didn't work out all that great last chapter, so I'm just going to keep things in third person.**

Chapter 13; On the Cusp of Understanding.

A few days had passed by in utter silence and worry. Ivo was back, proving that Tyron had given XANA the power to literally rip into other dimensions, as an alternate one had been where Ivo was located. There was also the worry of a now literal black, no racisim intended, version of Keifer hunting them down.

"Life doesn't get much better than this" Ulrich sighed as he and Odd, along with Keifer were sitting out on the porch while Jeremie, Yumi, and Metal were all waiting for a Power Ring to appear in the fountain out back. The second person to test the rings was Peter, who had literally been able to shoot and breath fire, almost setting the back-yard on fire had it not been for Metal Sonic being present at the time. Then Aelita had tested hers and she was able to see twelve hours into the future and read people's minds, which combined, was terrifying. And now, today, Yumi was going to try her's.

"It's not all THAT bad" Keifer said as he sipped on his lemonade. "I mean, we're only fighting a deadly Virus controlled by a man who wants control of the world, along with his crazed daughter, a mad scientist who wants me dead, and a REALLY edgy version of me" Keifer summed up, downing the rest of his cold drink. "But you're right, things could be a lot better" he admitted. "But at least Franz and Jeremie are working together on a new way of beating them all.

"And don't forget I'm helping as well" Chuck said as he walked out with a chuckle. "We figured that you all will need to strike the entire group at once, no exceptions" he told them. "What we're working on right now is a Kill Program that will destroy XANA and make it impossible for any of Tyron's computer equipment, appliances, ETC. to work again. As for Tyron, Jade, Ivo, and Zach, we're still trying to find the... least bloody way to get rid of them"

"Could always lock em' up" William suggested, also walking out with a massive black eye.

"Okay, what happened?" Odd asked him.

"Yumi's power" Metal Sonic said as he was followed out by Jeremie and Yumi. "When she tries any harming move, it creates a wave of power replicating it" he explained, rubbing a small dent on his head.

"Well dang, that sounds like Over-Kill" Ulrich stated, finishing his lemonade.

"Wait until it's tried on Lyoko" Aelita said, bringing out a tray of small cupcakes.

"All I can say is that my throat burned for hours" Peter said through a mouth full of cupcake. "But hey, at least I can toast things with ease"

"Or nearly destroy a nice garden" Keifer joked. "But that aside, we DO need to figure out a plan that doesn't involve killing our enemies" he added.

"Why not trap them on Lyoko and shut off the Super Computer?" Jeremie suggested. "Once XANA is defeated anyway"

"I mean, in a sense, we aren't KILLING them" Odd said. "But it's still almost as bad"

"And we can't just tell the authorities" Ulrich sighed.

"If I could just focus in n an alternate dimension or put them in an endless vortex..." Keifer begun to enter a deep thought, and without noticing, he walked into the fountain and fell face first. "GAH, I hate water!" he moaned as he jumped out and everyone laughed.

"What if we were to subdue Zach, and then send the others back to Ivo's old prison?" Metal Sonic suggested. "I can say with certainty that Zach isn't human, at all"

"True, Ivo came out looking just perfect, so if I could... no, it's too risky!" Keifer said quickly. "The only reason I could open a portal was because I used my Dark form"

"Who says it has to be that?" Franz questioned, walking outside. "I ran some calculations on my laptop, and I believe we can give those Chaos Emeralds a much needed upgrade" he said to the group.

"But how?" Jeremie asked quizzically. "The program that the Emeralds came from exploded!"

"He's right - the program deleted itself and any trace of it after I got the Emeralds" Keifer backed Jeremie up.

"Simple; We get the Emeralds out f you and run the upgrade program" Franz said to him quickly as if he was trying to hide something from them. "And we will go right away" he added, leading them out of the yard and into their sewer entrance.

"Hey Aelita" William motioned her to the back and whispered something to her in a low tone "Your dad seems to be acting strange"

"I'm sure it's nothing" She assured him. "I'm sure he's just stressed or something" but she wouldn't brush off the fact that her dad was acting odd, and they just continued on in silence.

"Well, we're here" Keifer said as they climbed up the ladder towards the exited first and he just jumped up. He himself was nervous of the program Franz was speaking of. _"There is no way we can make them stronger"_ he thought to himself as they got into the factory and into the all but-too familiar elevator.

"I'll just send in Keifer first" Franz said as he quickly exited the elevator. Before anyone could say anything, they continued their descent down to the scanners.

"Well, let's see what happens" Ulrich said. Unknown to everyone though, William snuck up the ladder and was hiding behind Franz.

"Virtualization!" Franz yelled, hitting enter and sending Keifer to Lyoko. As Keifer landed in the Sixth Sector he immediately knew something was wrong.

"Wait a minute, why am I - ARG!" he roared with pain as red electricity hit him and begun coursing through his body. He clutched himself as Franz laughed a XANA-fied laugh.

"He-ya!" William yelled throwing the unsuspecting XANA-fied Franz out of the chair. "Ulrich, Odd, some help up here!" he yelled as Franz got back up. The boys, including Peter rushed up to see what was happening. So did Jeremie, who ducked past the fighting and pulled up a visual of Keifer still getting fried.

"Okay ladies, I'm sending you in!" Jeremie called down to them as Peter went flying past him and into a wall.

"Man, I HATE when I hit walls!" Peter groaned as he got up and rushed Franz.

"A little... HELP!" Keifer screamed as the pain got worse and worse. He was down on the ground now as a Skypezoah begun coming towards him. But before it could wrap its' tentacles around him, Yumi and Aelita landed behind him. Jeremie had copied the transfer data from Keifer's virtualization making that possible.

"Yumi, get that beast!" Aelita said to her, running to Keifer's side as he blacked out. But his body was changing. His quills begun moving into a downward fashion, and his eyes turned green. He sat up after this and saw the Skypezoah.

"Did I mention, I HATE Sea food!" he then rushed forward with such speed it made air clones behind him. He jumped and homed in right at the jelly part of the monster, and with the force of a two-ton truck, he air-dashed through it, causing it to explode.

"You're different" Yumi pointed out as he settled down next to them. Keifer then realized what had happened and he just brushed it off as nothing.

"Look, over there, there's an activated tower!" he quickly pointed it out on the far left side of the sector, way ahead of them. "Grab on, I've got this!"

"We don't got this!" Odd cried out as he was struck with purple electricity before being thrown at a wall, straight passed William, who was recovering from being attacked.

"If only we had a Power Ring!" Ulrich moaned out, trying to attack XANA-Franz, but to no avail. He was thrown into Peter as Franz laughed evilly.

"Guys, any day with that tower!" Jeremie cried as the scientist begun advancing on the blonde, only to be thrown down by William, who was breathing heavily as blood dripped out of his mouth.

"Don't worry, Aelita got in there safe and sound!" Keifer reassured him as the Smoke returned from red to white, and the specter inside of Franz left the poor old man's body.

"I don't feel so good..." Peter muttered as he leaned against the computer chair.

"Neither do I" Odd added as Franz came to, rubbing his head.

"Thanks for the save children" he said to them all as Keifer, Yumi, and Aelita joined them all.

"Any time" William said, coughing up a little more blood. He got some concerned looks, but spoke again, "I'll be fine. Let's just get home"

"Agreed" Ulrich sighed as they all got into the elevator and returned to the surface only to be greeted by Metal Sonic.

"You are all hurt, what happened?" he asked them. Even for a robot with a voice synthesizer, he still sounded like a human.

"Long story short; XANA, but we lived" Odd told him as they decided to take the woods back, the evening sun giving off a relaxing vibe.

"I think I finally know what XANA is trying to do to me" Keifer said with sudden realization. Just thinking about it hurt him greatly.

"What is it?" almost everyone asked at once.

"He's trying to break my mind - he wants me to become my Dark Form to control me"


	14. The Beginning of the End (CHAP14)

Chapter 14; The Beginning of the End

As summer began coming to a close, the gang was no more successful in stopping their enemies than they had been since day one. Tyron used XANA to attack two or three times a week, and sometimes he'd use Jade to try and stop them, but to no avail. They had also found out that Ivo had passed away from a heart attack somehow caused by Zach. Ulrich, Odd, and Peter had been witness to this as they were attempting a data raid on Tyron's newly built Super Computer. But his words were seared in their minds.

"I will no longer take orders from ANYONE!" Zach had said before making a clawing motion towards Ivo. "I'm my own person, and I will find my destiny, real or not!"

"Oh man, school starts back up tomorrow" Keifer muttered as they all sat down together to eat a large, wide variety meal made by Athena and Metal. He piled his plate up high with Spaghetti and Alfredo, along with a special home made macaroni. Once more earlier that day, his mind had nearly been ripped apart again, Jade having been there and somehow being able to almost speed the process up.

"I think that is the least of our worries" Yumi sighed, eating some of her ramen and vegetables. "Tyron has to be planning something, and we have to stop him - no matter what"

"I agree, but me, Charles, and Metal haven't found a weakness in XANA's new programming" Franz sighed, but found his wife's reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Speaking of Charles, I think you have something you'd like to say to everyone?"

"Oh, that's right!" he snapped his fingers. "As you may or may not know, tenth and eleventh grade math is held together, and I happened to just so get the recently open position!" this caused many cheers from the group, especially from his nephew.

"That's great, maybe now Ulrich and Odd will do good in Math" Peter joked, also having pilled the assortment of pastas onto his plate.

"Hey, you aren't exactly a genius either!" Odd whined.

"Alright, alright you got me" Peter joked in defeat. The rest of the meal continued on with just general chatter until everyone was finished, including Metal Sonic, who had finished digesting some metal nuts. He had explained to everyone that by digesting them with any kind of motor oil, it could supply him extra energy and speed up repairs on his body. He cleared everyone's plates and bade them all good night as he begun tightening some screws on himself.

"Hey Metal" William walked up and sat next to him. "Can I... speak to you about something?" the boy asked the robot, who looked up.

"I don't see why not" the robot replied, putting down his screw driver and sipping on his oil.

"Well... I wanted o talk to you about... being a prisoner... like being possessed..."

 **-Next Day, Math Class-**

The first day back hadn't been so bad. Yumi and William had both agreed by lunchtime that eleventh grade hadn't seemed so bad. And now, they were entering their final class of the day, math.

"Good afternoon everyone!" Chuck said with a hearty smile, his mustache moving as he did so. "I would like to introduce myself to you all. I am Chuck Charles! I will be your math teacher for this year. Before we start getting into what you may consider to be boring, I would like you all to ask any questions you may have" he spoke to them all kindly, causing many people to raise there hands. By the time he was done answering the last question, the final bell went off for the day. "Now then, I would like you all to be ready for a simple and advanced equations test tomorrow" Chuck told them all. "If everyone does good enough, we'll take Wednesday off for relaxing!" Keifer smiled as his Uncle told them all this and he headed out of the room and into the flooded hallways with his friends.

"Let's go out to the court yard for a bit" Jeremie suggested to his friends. "I mean, it'd be a nice way to relax"

"Wasn't that enough relaxing in my Uncle's class?" Keifer joked as hey headed out into the end of summer air. In a few day's time, the beginning of fall would start. They all headed towards the vending machines. No one's looks had changed too much, except for Keifer's. His quills and eyes remained the same way they had been from the time they changed on Lyoko. Ulrich now sported a darker jacket, Yumi now had small flower designs on her shirt, Odd had stopped wearing his hoodie constantly, Jeremie now wore a gray hoodie, Aelita now had a few more reds, William stopped wearing his long sleeve shirts, and Peter had stopped wearing shorts.

"Let's see... ooh you know what, I'm feeling a Banana muffin" Odd said as he deposited his coin into the machine and the wrapped pastry dropped out. "He snatched it up and ripped it out of it's packaging before devouring it.

"How can you eat so fast?" Peter mused as he put his own coin in before getting a brownie out with small, candy pieces in it.

"He's Odd, that's how" Jeremie said with a chuckle, secretly holding hands with Aelita, who was lightly blushing at the contact. He got both him and Aelita coffee while everyone else got their own things before heading over to a bench and sitting down.

"You know what - I gotta credit Tyron, this new look is kinda cool" Keifer admitted. He had also gotten a new pair of sneakers that had golden buckles on the sides.

"The question is though, how did that electricity morph your body?" Peter wondered out loud.

"I dunno" Keifer answered honestly. "What I do know, though, is that we're all gonna go get Pizza for dinner, my treat" he added with a smirk.

"Oh heck yeah, I am SO down!" Odd said, fist pumping in to the air.

"It has been a while" Aelita said, her stomach grumbling lightly.

"Then it's settled" Keifer said. "I want to go practice a new move of mine though before we go later. Anyone wanna come help me?"

"Sure, I will" William said with a reluctant smile. He was durable, so he figured he could take a hit or two.

"I'll come too" Yumi said to him. Keifer nodded and the three headed off for the gym while everyone else went off to do their own thing until that evening.

"Alright, so I'm gonna need you both to be targets" Keifer said to Yumi and William as they got in position. "I wanna try something new I came up with thanks to my new look. I call it the homing-shot" he explained to them as they both nodded. "Then here goes!" he yelled. He jumped up in to a ball and lunged at William, who fell on to the mats on the floor. Thanks to the impact, Keifer bounced up and still in his ball form, lunged at Yumi with success.

"That knocked the wind out of me" Yumi said honestly as Keifer helped her and William back up. "But I will admit, that was pretty awesome"

"Totally" William said with a smile to his friend.

"Alright, you guys wanna try again?" he asks them. This went on for about an hour until it was around six-thirty. They met with the others at the gate and sat off for the familial Italian Restaurant.

"Needless t say, I think I mastered my homing-shot" Keifer told them as they got to the large building and entered, the smells of delicious Italian cuisine hitting their noses like a stream of water.

"That ought to help with big groups of monsters on Lyoko" Ulrich said thoughtfully as they ordered the same Pizzas they had ordered the last time they had came there.

"Yeah, it reminds me of that one time when I had homing Laser Arrows" Odd chuckled as the waitress brought them their drinks. They all just sat there and relaxed after his statement, general chatter from other people hitting their ears on occasion. Then, about ten minutes later, their orders came out.

"I haven't had this in a while" William said, biting into his slice of pizza.

"You should try meat-ball, it's flipping amazing" Peter said, already starting on his second slice, but Odd was way ahead of him, already on his third.

"While that sounds weird, I have heard of worse" Ulrich told him. "Brussel sprout Tuna"che gagged at saying that.

"Let's not talk about gross things, because there is something I need to say" Jeremie spoke up with a lot more confidence then he ever had had in his life. "Me and Aelita have decided it's time we tell you guys that we... we're dating" everyone cheered at him saying this, embarrassing both of the nerds.

"Not gonna lie, it was kinda obvious when I saw you guys holding hands earlier" Keifer pointed out with a laugh. This caused the two of them to blush even more.

"So when are you and Yumi gonna cross that bridge?" William joked, causing Ulrich and Yumi to blush and look away from each other. "Hey, I'm just saying this because you two are crazy for each other"

"He's right you know" Odd laughed. After this, the group just finished in an awkward silence. Keifer left the money on the bill and they stepped out into the evening air.

"Hold on guys - I'm getting a call from Franz" Jeremie said to them. He pulled out his phone and begun talking. "Wait - you have? That's awesome... oh. Okay, we're all coming over" he hung up and had a grim look on his face. "Franz said he's found a way to defeat XANA and Tyron" he deadpanned. Everyone looked at him in disbelief. "He wants us to meet at the Mansion right now" he added.

"Okay everyone, this is the last time I'm doing this" Keifer said. "Grab on" and as he said this, everyone made a sort of chain. Keifer closed his eyes and breathed in. And then he took oof, getting them to the mansion in under a minute, and for once he was able to stop without hurting everyone.

"There you are" Franz said to them, no happiness in his voice. He was sitting on the couch with Athena next to him and Chuck in a recliner not far from them. Metal also stood next to them, and somehow, he too was looking grim. "As you may know, we found a way to beat our enemies once and for all. But it's very risky"

"What is it?" Aelita asked her father, her voice full of worry and concern for her and everyone else.

"The risk is someone dying" Athena said, tears in her eyes.

"You see, for beating XANA, we made that little micro-chip Metal Sonic has. With it inserted into a person's head, they can enter the Sphere on Sector Six and run the definitive Kill program" Chuck explained to them, his eyes hazy and foggy.

"But how would that cause the possibility of someone dying?" William asked him.

"XANA" Metal Sonic begun speaking. "The chip makes you immune to the Skypezoah, and the person with it in their head will need to let XANA enter through the monster. XANA won't be able to escape your mind and in the Sphere, the Kill program can be run, finishing him off for good" Metal Sonic said to them, seeing the grim looks on all of their faces.

"I'll do it" Yumi volunteered. "If someone has to die to end all of this, then I will"

"NO!" everyone jolted around to see Keifer, who had yelled. "I'll do it, and no one is going to change my mind. For all we know, it may not even kill me. Plus, before XANA can even try escaping my mind, I can book it in to the sphere. Plus, you guys are gonna have to deal with Jade and Tyron" he said definitively.

"But Keif-"

"Ulrich, it has to be this way" Jeremie spoke up once more. "He's right - he'll have the speed to stop XANA and you guys should be able to finish off Jade and Tyron" his eyes were slightly bloodshot, as no one knew of the special program he had put in Metal Sonic. It took him a month to make, but it would be worth it.

"And if you DO die?" Yumi asked him, sounding angry and upset.

"I wouldn't leave you guys with nothing" Keifer smirked. He closed his eyes and the seven Chaos Emeralds floated out of his body and one went to each of his friends before disappearing in a shower of sparkles. "Just a little something from my heart" he says to them with a smile. "And if I do die, you've got a steel copy of me" he joked, patting Metal Sonic on the back. "But on a serious note - when can we end this all?"

"Tomorrow morning" Franz said to him. "That is when we can fight to the finish"


	15. In the Final Part 1 (CHAP15)

Chapter 15; In the Final Part 1

That night, no one could sleep. Even Metal Sonic couldn't put himself in recharge mode, not with what was going to happen the next day. Finally, the next morning, everyone had met in the dining room for one last run-down of the plan.

"We'll send Keifer, Peter, and William into Sector Six" Franz begun saying, sipping on his cup of coffee. "While we use our new program to send the rest of you right to Tyron's lab. You will then need to re-route his scanners to have them sent to our Lyoko. Only then, after they are there and XANA is dead can we shut off the Super Computer" he concluded. Everyone nodded grimly as Keifer walked over t Metal Sonic.

"Inject me with the chip brother" he said with a smile. Metal Sonic nodded and raised his hand to Keifer's head. With a tiny poke, it was in, and it caused the blue boy to shudder a little bit.

"Once we're in the Sphere, I will run the program" Metal Sonic said to him.

"You can't go to Lyoko though!" Keifer protested. "You'll lose your will again and if I die, the others will need you!"

"I actually found a solution to that" Jeremie said to them. "On my Laptop, I made a program that can stop Tyron from breaching Metal's mind again, but only for a little while" he added quickly.

"Then let's get this done" Ulrich said as everyone, except Athena, left the house and went down into the sewer. None of them were talking. They were either nervous, scared, or worried of the possibility of losing a friend.

"Well, let's hope we can all see each other again" Keifer tried to encourage his friends as they got to the factory and into the Elevator. No matter what happened, this would be one of the last times that they would use the elevator.

"Alright, good luck everyone" Chuck said as he, Franz, and Jeremie exited the elevator. The rest of them went down and Keifer, William, and Metal all entered a scanner. Jeremie activated his program and Franz sent them in. Almost immediately as they landed, the all but too familiar Squid monster came around. Keifer walked up to it and it grabbed him.

 _"Be brave"_ he thought to himself as he could feel a dark presence float in to his mind. A few moments later, he could hear boisterous laughing as he was dropped on the ground. He jumped up and he looked at his friends, who were looking on at him in worry. He smiled and they begun taking off for the maze, the evil voice of XANA screaming in Keifer's mind once it realized what was happening. But then trouble struck. The entire ground begun getting covered in what looked like red acid.

"Today is the day!" Tyron said to his daughter as they were sitting in the labs dining room, eating breakfast. "We will stamp out Franz and his so-called Lyoko Warriors and take over the world!" he laughed evilly. He went to speak, but the entire wall to the dining room was blasted off by Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, Peter, and Aelita. Jade begun charging at them while Tyron quickly pulled the Cell Splitter out of his lab coat.

"Oh no you DON'T!" Odd practically screamed and threw himself at Tyron, causing the weapon to go flying. Peter saw this as his chance. He ran to the weapon, and with his sword glowing a hot white, he thrusted it in down to the hilt, melting the weapon in to nothing.

"NO!" Tyron cried, throwing Odd off of his as he charged at Peter, only to have the wind knocked out of him by Ulrich, who was holding a Power Ring.

"These things sure are helpful" he chuckled, his voice sounding magnified as he grabbed the subdued Tyron and dragged him out of the room behind Jade, who was being dragged by the girls.

"Chuck, we've got them, can you start telling me how to re-route their scanners?" Aelita asked him through her communicator.

"Yes, I will, just keep them secure!" he said quickly as he begun instructing Aelita. Peter literally plopped down on Tyron, who had ben knocked out and Yumi held her foot on Jade's chest.

"You really are no better than us" she sneered. before Yumi could reply, the ceiling broke and Zach came crashing in, landing softly.

"Yes she is" he said angrily. "At least she didn't resort to trying to make a fake being! I found out what my Destiny is, and it is to help stop you!"

"William!" Keifer cried out as his friend was devirtualized by the fast moving Lava Acid.

 _"FOOL!" YOU CAN NOT HOPE TO WIN!"_ XANA boomed in his mind, failing to escape. He and Metal finally made it inside the dome and the robot started working away on the interface. Keifer gasped as the room around them started to fall away.

"Metal, run the program, NOW!" Franz yelled, hitting enter on his keyboard, giving power to the chip. The Robot nodded and ran it, and suddenly, Keifer felt a pain worse than any before.

 _"NO, STOP! THIS WILL KILL YOU TOO, CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?"_ XANA was now screaming, causing the pain to be worse.

"Then at least I was useful for something" Keifer chuckled through the agony he was suffering as his body was engulfed in white light.

"The transfer is ready!" Aelita said to her friends. Zach nodded to her and managed to grab both Jade and Tyron before throwing them on the scanner pad. Before either of them could fight back, they were sent on to Lyoko. But Chuck had made sure it was impossible to escape, making the two of them powerless.

"Oh no, Keifer, Metal!" Jeremie cried as Keifer's body was still glowing and Metal stood there. then suddenly, the light died down and Keifer fell over. Metal held on to him as Franz quickly brought the two of them in right as the last part of Sector 6 dissapeared for good.


	16. In the Finale (Last Chapter)

Chapter 16; In the Finale (In the Final 2/2)

As the scanners opened, Chuck surged forward to grab his nephew. he placed his hand over his heart and felt that it was not beating, causing him to tear up as the scanners closed and reopened to reveal Zach, Ulrich and Odd. After them came Yumi, Aelita, and Peter as William, Franz, and Jeremie came down stairs.

"We did it guys - we actually did it!" Jeremie cheered before realizing what had happened. He gasped and nearly collapsed as they all stood around the dead body of their friend.

"He made the ultimate sacrifice" Yumi whispered, a tear fell from her eyes as she said this.

"Without him... I don't think we'd be where we are today" Odd said. "It's unfair!" he cried out. "He save my life, why can't we save his?" all of the warriors, excluding Metal and Zach, who stood there silently, shed their tears. But unbeknownst to everyone, the Emeralds had left the warriors bodies. Metal finally noticed this as they swirled around Keifer.

"Guys!" he said quickly, causing them to all break out of their sad spell and watch in awe as Keifer's body begun floating up, then a bright, blinding flash of light filled the room. After it died down, Keifer stood there, staring at his shocked friends.

"WE DID IT!" he cried out with tears of joy as he surged forward to his friends, who were all crying. Finally, almost 3 years of fighting, risking their lives, living through near hell, had come to an end. And all of them had made it out

 **-3 Years later-**

It had been 3 years since the day of their final victory. The Super Computer had been shut off, Zach had become a good friend to everyone, and Chuck had gotten married to a nice woman who worked at the local library. It was the final day of Senior year for the gang (except Yumi and William, who had graduated a year prior) and they were getting ready for their graduation.

"You know, I thought we would never make it this far!" Odd joked as he and his male friends were in the changing room getting ready for the graduation.

"I would have never thought of me having friends like you guys either" Keifer said with a smile. As the years had passed, his quills moved back up to their original position from when they had been switched, making him happy.

"I'll just be glad to get out of this heckin' outfit" Peter groaned with a smile as he finished changing.

"Agreed" Ulrich muttered. He then reached into his pocket. "I want to show you all something" he said, motioning them over.

"What is it?" Jeremie asked him quizzically. Ulrich pulled out a small box and showed them it all. They mostly gasped, but Odd clapped him on the back.

"So you're gonna propose to her, huh?" he asked quizzically.

"We've been dating for three years, and I think that now that we'll be starting college soon, it's a better time than never" he said to them all.

"I'm happy for ya" Peter said to him. "Also Odd, I wouldn't be shocked if you proposed to Sam any day now" he added with a smirk.

"Then what about you and Sissi?" he retorted.

"I actually DO plan on it" he said much to the shock of them all. "Ever since she changed and we got together, she felt like the one" he said, showing them all the ring box. "And Keifer, I want you to be the best man at my wedding" he said to the blue blur.

"I owe you that much, especially after crashing into you when we first met" he joked. "But you can count on it old friend"

"And what about you Jeremie?" Ulrich looked over to the blond.

"You'll see after all of this" he said with a smile as all of the boys were called out. The Gymnasium had been set up for the event, and they were all sitting on the front row, with families two rows behind. Aelita met up with them as they all took their seats and Mr. Delmas begun giving a long speech. Everyone them got in a line and got their diplomas in alphabetical order, ending with Zach. He had been able to pass off as Keifer's brother, which had actually turned out to be true. When Ivo had created him, he had used Keifer's DNA sequence, practically making them twins.

"Congratulations to everyone here today for finishing school, and we will miss you all" Mr. Delmas concluded. Everyone cheered as the graduates threw their hats up in to the air in triumph.

 **-That night, at the Italian Restaurant-**

The gang was just sitting at their usual table, smiling. They had also brought Metal Sonic with them, as he had gotten a few upgrades that allowed him to run off of human food, nearly making him a human himself. And Sissi was with them too, along with Sam.

"Yumi, there is something I want to say" Ulrich got up and kneeled in front of the love of his life. Yumi almost cried when he opened the box. "Yumi Ishyama, the love of my life, will you marry me?" he asked her with a burning fire in his eyes.

"Yes!" she screamed, throwing her arms around him as they kissed and as everyone cheered.

"I also have an announcement to make" Jeremie, Peter, and Odd al almost said simultaneously, proposing to their girl friends and all of them getting a yes.

"What about you William?" Keifer asked him as their food, a mega-size pizza was brought to them.

"You guys can meet her tomorrow" he said to him, grabbing a slice of pizza with everyone.

"And seeing as you asked him, what are you gonna do Keifer?" Aelita asked him. Keifer lost himself to his thought for a while.

"I... I don't know" he said honestly. "While all of us got accepted to Kadic College, I don't know. I had always planned from the day that my parents and sister passed away, I'd be winging it solo until my last breath"

"I'm sure you can find someone who likes you" Sissi said to him reassuringly.

"It's not just that!" everyone looked at him when his voice slightly raised, even Zach looked at him in concern. "I've never felt genuine love without getting my heart shattered right afterwards, and I don't want to hurt someone" he told them all. "But maybe you are right, I may just find someone" he sighed as they all continued eating. They then heard shouting coming from outside. "I'll go check!" Keifer said quickly, jumping up and off as he bolted out and to the alley next to the building.

"Nrgh, get off of me!" he heard a scared, female voice say. He then saw three, tall, buff looking men standing over a scared female teenager.

"Hey, back off of her!" he warned angrily. They all three turned to him with wicked knifes out.

"We can;t have witnesses" the middle one said.

"Then let's sick em' the left one said snidly

"CHARGE!" the right one yelled, the three of them lunging at Keifer. He simply out-stepped them as the three f them tumbled. Keifer then closed his eyes and felt himself turn into his Dark form, which he had gained complete control of thanks to Zach. He then willed very dark, disturbing, and unsettling imagery in the minds of the three thugs.

"Don't come back here. EVER!" he roared at them as they screamed and ran off. Keifer willed his form away and walked over to the girl, and boy was she pretty. She had red hair done in a ponytail, and ocean blue eyes, and a face that could melt ice. "Sorry you had to see that" Keifer offered her a hand and she accepted it. She was about four inches shorter than him.

"Thank you" she said to him, her voice calming him. "I was on my way back from a graduation party and those three jumped me" she said to him, and Keifer realized who it was.

"You're Sally Leon, right?" he asked her.

"And you must be Keifer, right?" she asked him back. he nodded.

"Care to join us?" he asked her nicely.

"I don't see what harm it could cause" she smiled as he led her to him and his friend's table.

"Guys, this is Sally. I helped her when she was getting jumped and I invited her to join us" he said as they sat down. They all introduced themselves to her and she was a little shocked at the robot sitting across from her.

"I am Metal Sonic. A robotic copy of Keifer" he said, offering his metallic hand. Sally shaked it and shoved off any feeling of worry. They all just sat there and finished their meal before Keifer paid the bill and they all headed out into the moon lit streets.

"Hey, why don't we take a trip down memory lane and go play some Video games at the mansion?" Odd suggested.

"I'd love to, but I gotta go home" Sally bade them all goodbye, but not before handing Keifer a slip of paper. They all waved goodbye and Keifer read it, shocked.

"Looks like you got some digits!" Odd laughed. Keifer blushed lightly and slipped it away. He just sighed with relief and finally made up his mind.

"You know what, I think I don't wanna keep running around the world. After all, I've got my Uncle, my brother, a nice home, and the greatest friends that anyone could ask for" he said to them with a smile as they all walked into the night.

 **A/N; It's finally over for our heroes. They've won and now their lives will carry on.** (Yes, I'm probably gonna make a story continuing this one)

THE END. (And thanks to everyone who stuck through until the end!


End file.
